Category Archives: World News

World’s most violent cities: Medellín crime surge helps Latin America top list

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Region has two-thirds of world’s most dangerous cities, with Bogotá, Rio, Mexico City and San Salvador also named in study

When police found the body of Marcela Graciano, a 31-year-old Colombian DJ, last Thursday, the brutality of the crime shocked even them. Her body, found in a house in a suburb of Medellín – Colombia’s second city – revealed signs of torture and her hands had been tied behind her back.

“The body was in an advanced state of decomposition,” the local police chief, Col Rolfy Mauricio Jiménez, said. The Valle de Aburrá municipality has had 11 murders this year, authorities said.

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The network of organisations seeking to influence abortion policy across Europe

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The ultra-Christian, anti-abortion and far-right network is allegedly seeking to replicate anti-choice efforts in the US

A network of ultra-Christian, anti-abortion and far-right organisations is building momentum in its quest to influence abortion policy in Europe as the US supreme court considers striking down Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalised the procedure in America.

Elements of the network originally came together under the name Agenda Europe, holding yearly summits across the continent between 2013 until at least 2018, by which time it had grown to comprise 300 participants, including politicians and Vatican diplomats.

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Russian mercenaries accused over use of mines and booby traps in Libya

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Exclusive: UN investigators say Wagner Group fighters did not mark mines’ positions and may have rigged bomb to teddy bear

Russian mercenaries in Libya systematically broke international law by laying mines in civilian areas without any attempt to mark their location or remove the lethal devices, UN investigators have found.

According to a confidential UN report that will be made public in the coming weeks, fighters from the Wagner Group, a private military company that has been repeatedly linked to the Kremlin by western officials, also rigged booby traps to powerful explosive anti-tank weapons that were responsible for the death of two mine clearers working for an NGO.

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‘You shake at the smallest of noises’: Russian soldier tells of life as a PoW

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Anton, released by Ukraine in a prisoner exchange, says he is only now registering the toll captivity took on mind and body

Still getting used to the feel of his gun and military fatigues, Anton suddenly found himself surrounded by Ukrainian forces as bullets flew by, with one striking his arm.

“It was our first confrontation with the enemy; we hadn’t even fired a shot. They ambushed us, and we couldn’t fight back. We had to surrender,” said Anton, a 21-year-old Russian serviceman, in an interview with the Guardian.

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Deal proposed by China would dramatically expand security influence in Pacific

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Leaked copy of draft shows Beijing wants more involvement in policing, cybersecurity and marine mapping

China is pursuing a sweeping regional economic security deal with Pacific nations that would dramatically expand its influence and reach into those countries, in a pact that has western countries and some Pacific leaders deeply worried.

The wide-ranging deal lays out China’s vision for a much closer relationship with the Pacific, especially on security matters, with China proposing it would be involved in training police, cybersecurity, sensitive marine mapping and gaining greater access to natural resources.

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Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand ‘ready to respond’ to Pacific’s security needs as China seeks deal in region

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Prime minister says ‘the Pacific is our home’ as Beijing plans a regional security pact with almost a dozen island nations

Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand is “ready to respond” to security needs in the Pacific, after it emerged China is planning a Pacific-wide security deal with almost a dozen island nations.

The prime minister, who is touring the US, said she believed the Pacific could meet its security needs internally, implying it should do so without intervention from China or elsewhere. “On anything related to security arrangements, we are very strongly of the view that we have within the Pacific the means and ability to respond to any security challenges that exist and New Zealand is willing to do that,” Ardern said.

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Texas school shooting: gunman was inside for 40 minutes, officials say – updates as they happened

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This blog is now closed. Click here for full coverage of the shooting at the Robb elementary school in Uvalde

As the US begins to reflect on the events of yesterday as it begins to wake up, several politicians have made calls to action or asked pressing questions. Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic party presidential nominations in 2020, said:

We grieve for the 21 who were killed in Texas today. But grieving is not enough—we could have, and must now, take commonsense actions to prevent these tragedies, like establishing single points of entry into schools, armed guards, trained staff, mental health services & more.

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Cramped ship carrying more than 800 Haitians lands in Cuba

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Group includes children and pregnant women as exodus from crisis-hit Haiti grows

A ship carrying more than 800 Haitians who were apparently trying to reach the US has landed instead in central Cuba, in what is thought to be the largest group yet in a swelling exodus of people from the crisis-stricken Caribbean countr.

The Communist party newspaper Granma quoted Red Cross officials in the province of Villa Clara as saying the 842 people crammed on to the vessel had been given medical attention and were being housed at a tourist campground.

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Kyiv denounces Putin’s ‘illegal’ plan for issuing Russian passports in Ukraine

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Putin signs decree to make it easier for residents of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to get passports

Moscow’s plan to make it easier for Ukrainians living in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine to receive Russian citizenship violates international law, Kyiv has said, accusing the Kremlin of “criminal” behaviour.

“The illegal issuing of passports ... is a flagrant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as norms and principles of international humanitarian law,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

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‘America is killing itself’: world reacts with horror and incomprehension to Texas shooting

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The international press responds scathingly to the tolerance for gun violence in the US: ‘nothing fundamentally changes’

Politicians and media around the world have reacted with horror, incomprehension and weary resignation to news that an 18-year-old gunman had murdered 19 children and two teachers in America’s 27th school shooting so far this year.

The politicians mostly observed formalities; commentators, not so much.

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Refugee children handed anti-illegal migration playing cards, Australian charity says

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Cards branded with Australian government’s ‘Zero Chance’ logo and QR code to border force website distributed in Indonesia

Playing cards adorned with the Australian government’s “Zero Chance” campaign against “illegal migration” were distributed to refugee children in Indonesia by people trespassing on school grounds, the charity running the school alleges.

The playing cards were allegedly given to children during break time at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre in west Java.

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New era for Philippines as Ferdinand Marcos Jr proclaimed president

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Dictator’s son will take office on 30 June, marking the dynasty’s return to the seat of power

Ferdinand Marcos Jr was flanked by his family, including matriarch Imelda Marcos, as he stood at the rostrum in the Philippines Congress to be proclaimed president-elect, marking the dynasty’s return to the seat of power.

Marcos Jr won almost 59% of votes in an election earlier this month, more than double that of his closest rival. His landslide victory followed a highly divisive campaign that was dominated by disinformation that sought to glorify the regime of his dictator father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr, who plundered as much as $10bn while in office, and presided over rife human rights abuses.

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Republicans offer thoughts and prayers – but not gun control to stop the killings

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Response in Congress to Texas school shooting that left 21 people dead comes from all-too-familiar Republican playbook

As the cycle of American gun violence took its latest turn on Tuesday, with at least 19 children and two teachers brutally murdered at an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, the response from the Republican right came from an all too familiar playbook.

Thoughts and prayers, obfuscation and inaction.

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Cow you see me, cow you don’t: Spanish town’s Osborne bull turns sky blue

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Anonymous artist behind billboard’s makeover says it was ‘just a poetic endeavour’

In the 65 years since their unmistakeable silhouettes first appeared on Spanish hillsides, the bulls created to advertise Osborne brandy have hosted cinematic trysts, been given a Guernica paintjob, and even borne a phone-checking, coffee-drinking Batman.

Until a fortnight ago, however, no bull had ever vanished, almost completely, into the blue depths of the Spanish spring sky. Today, thanks to an overnight sortie and some very long brushes, the Osborne bull on the outskirts of the small Galician town of Xinzo de Limia is a fetching shade of azure – and a reflection on the impossibility of doing justice to the ever-changing heavens.

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Kate Moss testifies that Johnny Depp did not push her down stairs

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Supermodel, 48, says in three-minute appearance that she and Depp had been in romantic relationship between 1994 and 1998

Kate Moss testified by video for just three minutes on Wednesday in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, dispelling a rumor that Depp had pushed her down a flight of steps when he was her boyfriend in the 1990s.

The 48-year-old supermodel, speaking from her English home in Gloucestershire, told the court in Virginia that she and Depp had been in a romantic relationship from 1994 to 1998.

Depp’s attorney Benjamin Chew asked Moss if anything had happened while they were on holiday at the GoldenEye resort in Jamaica.

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Quebec moves to protect French language and restrict use of English

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Premier says ‘we are proud to be a francophone nation in North America’ but English-speaking critics threaten legal action

Quebec’s government has successfully passed sweeping French language protections that critics warn will reshape all aspects of public life.

Bill 96, which passed on Tuesday afternoon in the province’s national assembly, will require new immigrants and refugees to communicate with provincial officials exclusively in French six months after arriving or face a loss of services. The bill also limits the use of English in the legal system and caps enrolment at the province’s English-language schools.

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Fears Biden’s Taiwan comments may raise tensions despite rowback

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President said US would ‘get involved ’ if China attacked Taiwan, which some saw as policy shift

Comments by Joe Biden suggesting major US policy changes in regard to defending Taiwan before Washington quickly rowed back have sparked concern that the confusion could escalate tensions.

On Monday, in answer to a reporter’s question at a meeting of the informal Quad alliance, the US president said the US would “get involved militarily” to defend Taiwan if it came under attack from China. The answer was interpreted by some as an indication of a major policy shift. However, within minutes the state department began walking back the comments, and Biden himself clarified on Tuesday that there was no change to US policy.

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Pfizer to offer all its drugs not-for-profit to 45 lower-income countries

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Company launches ‘healthier world’ accord in Davos and speaks to other pharma firms about similar steps

Pfizer has announced it is to supply all its current and future patent-protected medicines and vaccines on a not-for-profit basis to 45 lower-income countries and is talking to other big drugmakers about similar steps.

Announcing an “accord for a healthier world” at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, the New York-based pharma firm pledged to provide all its products that are available in the US and Europe on a cost basis to 1.2 billion people in all 27 low-income countries such as Afghanistan and Ethiopia, plus 18 lower-middle-income countries including Ghana.

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Ukraine war weighs heavy as apocalyptic mood shrouds Davos

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From a warning of third world war to global stagflation or depression, gathering is unsurprisingly sombre

The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated a delayed and slimmed-down World Economic Forum this year but it took George Soros to articulate what many of those making the trip to the Swiss Alps had been thinking.

Davos would not be Davos without a broadside from the 91-year-old philanthropist and former speculator, but the conflict in eastern Europe prompted his most apocalyptic warning yet.

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Alleged Wagner Group fighters accused of murdering civilians in Ukraine

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Belarusian pair are first international mercenaries to face war crimes charges since invasion began

Two alleged Wagner Group fighters from Belarus have been accused of murdering civilians near Kyiv, making them the first international mercenaries to face war crimes charges in Ukraine.

Ukrainian prosecutors late on Tuesday released the names and photographs of eight men wanted for alleged war crimes – including murder and torture – in the village of Motyzhyn. Several are believed to have fought in Syria.

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