Facebook struggles as Russia steps up presence in unstable west Africa

Increasingly sophisticated efforts to influence opinion are making it harder to establish whether they breach Facebook’s policies

Facebook is struggling to contain pro-Russian and anti-western posts that are contributing to political instability in west Africa, investigators and analysts have said.

The platform, which has expanded rapidly across the continent in recent years, has made significant investment in content moderation, but still faces enormous challenges in curbing deliberate disinformation campaigns. One major area of concern is the strategically important Sahel region, which has suffered a series of military takeovers over the last 18 months.

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Barcelona honours Gabriel García Márquez with new library

The Colombian Nobel laureate, who lived in the city from 1967-75, is to have a €12m building specialising in Latin American literature named after him

In the digital age, building a new library filled with old-fashioned printed books seems idealistic, almost quixotic.Not so in Barcelona. The city council is about to open a new €12m (£10m) library next month, the latest instalment in a programme that dates back 20 years.

The library, in the working-class district of Sant Martí de Provençals, has been named in honour of the Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.

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Lessons from Covid can start a health revolution, says lab chief

Director of network that processed millions of tests says smart diagnostics could tackle other major diseases

Two years of mass Covid testing have paved the way for a revolution in how we diagnose other diseases, the founding director of the Lighthouse labs network has said.

In his first interview since the pandemic began, Prof Chris Molloy said that people’s familiarity with using swabs for Covid tests meant that they could also discover and monitor their risk of other conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.

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If Netflix is stumbling will Wall Street renew or cancel?

It disrupted the market and has more than 200m subscribers. But with slower growth, some say Netflix must change its game

Twelve years ago Jeff Bewkes, then chief executive of Time Warner, compared Netflix to the Albanian army. “It’s a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world? I don’t think so,” Bewkes told the New York Times, disparaging the streaming service’s ability to take on the established media players.

Well, the Albanian army won. Time Warner followed Netflix into streaming, NBCUniversal and Disney came after and so it carried on. In Britain, BBC and ITV invested in their streaming portals. Media was now living in Netflix’s world.

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‘After Bucha, I’m afraid of Russian soldiers’: people in east Ukraine prepare for fresh assault

As Putin’s forces gather for another strike, support for his action has fallen dramatically across the region

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest developments

The city of Kramatorsk feels empty. Only a handful of supermarkets, restaurants and hotels are still open. Windows along the main streets are boarded up. Many residents have moved out of their apartment blocks and into houses in neighbouring villages, where they judge it will be safer.

The few locals walking around behave as if they can’t hear the sirens blaring and appear not to flinch from the occasional thunder of incoming shells.

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‘They left her hanging’: details emerge of woman’s death at US-Mexico border

Griselda Verduzco Armenta was trying to get over the barrier with the help of coyotes to find a more secure future for her daughters


As she’d done before, Griselda Verduzco Armenta tried to cross Mexico’s border with the US earlier this week with dreams of being able to better provide for her two young daughters.

But the 32-year-old’s journey ended in tragedy when authorities say she fell from atop the US border wall in Arizona, accidentally became entangled in a climbing harness that she had used to scale the barrier, and was choked to death while upside down.

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Public lands to reopen for oil and gas drilling in a first under Biden

Interior department raises royalty rates by 50% as administration juggles high oil prices and climate impact

As federal officials weigh efforts to fight the climate crisis against pressure to bring down high gasoline prices, the interior department is moving forward with the first onshore sales of public oil and natural gas drilling leases under Joe Biden.

The move also calls for a sharp increase in royalty rates for companies, ostensibly to limit global emissions driving the climate crisis, though economists say the effect will be relatively small.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow attacks UK’s ‘anti-Russian hysteria’; billionaire vows to rebuild Mariupol – live

Russia says the ban on Boris Johnson and senior ministers from entering the country will soon be expanded to other politicians

Stay or go?

The question was a difficult one for Ukrainian officials in occupied areas, when deciding whether to follow President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s lead after he made the decision to remain in Kyiv as Russia invaded.

During occupation the main thing is to preserve life, and the people most in danger are the heads of the city. If the city is occupied, what should the mayor do, what should the team do? There was no single algorithm. Nobody gave us any orders. Everyone acted as they felt right.”

The situation in Mariupol is difficult and hard. Fighting is happening right now. The Russian army is constantly calling on additional units to storm the city.”

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Priti Patel could face Home Office mutiny over Rwanda asylum plan

Unions say civil servants could stage mass walkouts after home secretary overruled their concerns

Priti Patel could face a Home Office mutiny over plans to process migrants 5,000 miles away in Rwanda after overruling officials to push through the scheme.

The home secretary issued a rare ministerial direction to overrule concerns of civil servants about whether the scheme would deliver value for money.

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China tightens controls as Shanghai reports record Covid cases

Japan urges local government to address business concerns as ongoing restrictions hit commerce

Shanghai reported a record number of symptomatic Covid-19 cases on Saturday and other areas across China tightened controls as the country kept up its “dynamic clearance” approach that aims to stamp out the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The Zhengzhou airport economic zone, a central Chinese manufacturing area that includes Apple supplier Foxconn, announced a 14-day lockdown on Friday “to be adjusted according to the epidemic situation”.

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Boat capsizes off Libya, leaving 35 people dead or presumed dead

Wooden vessel launched from Sabratha, a major departure point for Europe, says UN migration agency

A boat carrying 35 people has capsized off the Libyan coast, , the UN migration agency has said.

The incident took place on Friday off the western Libyan city of Sabratha, a major launching point for the mainly African people making the dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean, said the International Organization for Migration.

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Women with electric rickshaws combat Delhi’s toxic air – and its sexism

Break into male-dominated public-transport helps tackle city’s pollution crisis and safety concerns

Monika Devi is thrilled to be driving her autorickshaw. The 35-year-old has two reasons to be particularly proud as she winds her way through New Delhi’s insanely congested streets.

She is one of the first women to be driving one of the three-wheeled taxis that swarm the roads of the Indian capital. And she is driving one of Delhi’s first e-rickshaws – part of the city’s drive to tackle its notoriously filthy air.

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Five people to share $50,000 reward for tips in New York subway shooting

Frank James, 62, arrested in Manhattan a day after attack on subway in Brooklyn in which more than 20 were wounded

Five people who provided “critical information” that helped lead to the arrest of the man charged with this week’s mass shooting in a New York subway will share a $50,000 reward, police announced.

The suspect, wearing a gas mask, had filled a crowded subway car traveling through Brooklyn with thick black smoke from a canister and opened fire last Tuesday on morning rush-hour passengers, injuring more than 20, including 10 with gunshot wounds.

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Russia bans Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Ben Wallace from entering country

Moscow announces move that will also bar 10 other UK government members and politicians

Russia’s foreign ministry has banned Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Ben Wallace and 10 other British government members from entering the country.

The ministry said the decision was made “in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the UK government”.

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South Africa’s flood-ravaged east hit by more heavy rain

Emergency services on high alert in KwaZulu-Natal as search for victims continues, with almost 400 dead

South Africa’s flood-ravaged east has been hit by another downpour of rain, after the catastrophic storm killed nearly 400 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

Flood waters from the deadliest storm to hit the country in living memory engulfed parts of the coastal city of Durban earlier this week – tearing apart roads, sweeping away homes and those trapped inside them, and sinking heavy cargo containers.

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Kyiv arms plant hit by Russia may have made missiles that sank Moskva

After two weeks of relative calm, mayor of city warns residents who have left that it is not safe to return

An arms plant in Kyiv destroyed by Russian long-range air-launched rockets allegedly produced at least one of the missiles used to sink the Moskva warship.

The attack on Friday was widely regarded by both parties as the most significant revenge strike by the Kremlin after the sinking of Russia’s flagship vessel in the Black Sea and a reminder that, despite being liberated from the occupants, the war in the Ukrainian capital is far from over.

Russia’s foreign ministry has barred entry to the country for the prime minister, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace and 10 other British government politicians and members. The move was taken “in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the British government, in particular the imposition of sanctions against senior Russian officials”, Reuters reports the ministry said in a statement.

The battle for Mariupol is continuing. If Moscow captures the city, home to 400,000 people before the invasion, it would be the first big city to fall.

Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Saturday, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, announced. Five of the nine evacuation corridors are from the east, in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which local officials have said is under heavy shelling.

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Macron and Le Pen battle to win over ‘politically orphaned’ French voters

In a Paris suburb, opinion is divided over who to vote for after the defeat of leftwing Jean-Luc Mélenchon


Emmanuel Macron is engaged in the battle of his career to persuade leftwing voters – many of whom have taken to the streets to oppose his government over the past five years – to turn out next Sunday and give him a second term in office.

Both Macron and Le Pen need to win over a chunk of the 7.7 million people who voted for the radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, narrowly knocked out in the first-round ballot last week.

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How Zelenskiy’s team of TV writers helps his victory message hit home

Influences from Churchill to Tolkien are woven in to the Ukrainian president’s compelling video addresses

On day 50 of Russia’s invasion, Volodymyr Zelenskiy made his nightly address to the Ukrainian people. Vladimir Putin had confidently expected to seize Ukraine in five days, Zelenskiy said, standing outside his neo-classical administration building in central Kyiv. Putin was now “making friends with reality”, he added mordantly, hailing the bravery and staunchness of his citizens.

There was a reference to Russia’s flagship Moskva, which Ukraine says it audaciously sank last Wednesday with two lethal Neptune missiles. The warship has become a meme and symbol of national defiance, ever since Ukrainian soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea told it in the first days of the conflict to “go and fuck yourself”.

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France braced for protests as Macron and Le Pen prepare for presidential runoff

Rights groups call for united front against far-right candidate as polls predict a win for centrist Emmanuel Macron

Protests were expected around France on Saturday as opponents of the far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen seek to form a united front to prevent her from winning an election runoff against incumbent Emmanuel Macron on 24 April.

Police warned of possible incidents as demonstrators convened in 30 cities.

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