Category Archives: World News

North Korea executes citizens who distribute foreign TV shows, UN finds

Posted on by

Human rights report highlights crackdown on personal freedoms in most restrictive country in the world

North Korea has executed people for distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, according to a UN human rights report.

Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher – including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said.

Continue reading...

Rome woman banned from feeding birds amid neighbours’ pigeon ‘hell’

Posted on by

Banning order comes after multiple complaints from residents of apartment block about feathers and droppings

Rome’s mayor has ordered a woman to stop feeding dozens of pigeons that have overrun an apartment block, after furious residents, claiming to be drowning in feathers and guano, demanded relief from what has been described as a Hitchcockian nightmare.

For several months, on the third floor of a building at 108 Via Spartaco, a woman nicknamed “The Pigeon Lady” by the press has been feeding the flock of birds that has been plaguing the block. After countless complaints from residents, exasperated by the thick layer of guano covering the building’s interior and the public areas below – not to mention the parked cars – local authorities issued an order banning her from feeding the pigeons.

Continue reading...

Europe’s cruel summer: Ursula von der Leyen faces an EU under pressure

Posted on by

European Commission president addresses a parliament reeling from Trump trade deal and escalations in Ukraine and Gaza

When Ursula von der Leyen arrived in the vast semi-circle debating chamber in the European parliament in Strasbourg, she greeted MEP leaders of some of Europe’s political groups warmly. Wearing a trim khaki-green jacket, the European Commission president smiled, shook hands and exchanged air kisses with some of the politicians, who had front-row seats for her annual state of the union address.

The hour-long speech on Wednesday had a stark message: Europe must fight for its place in an “unforgiving” world, facing major powers that are either “ambivalent or openly hostile” towards it.

Continue reading...

Hopes rise of pardon for Abd el-Fattah as Starmer speaks with Egypt president

Posted on by

Decision expected soon after reports in Cairo about status of imprisoned dual-national human rights activist

Keir Starmer has spoken to Abdel Fatah al-Sisi amid reports the Egyptian president has directed his officials to study an internal request to grant a pardon to release the British-Egyptian human rights activist and writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah.

Abd el-Fattah’s British-based family are not commenting on developments save to say they are praying for his release.

Continue reading...

Jail for Bolsonaro by no means signals the end of his political movement

Posted on by

With widespread support at home and from Trump, his heir will take the fight to Lula in the 2026 presidential election

Four years have passed since Jair Bolsonaro laid out three possible denouements for his extraordinary political career, during which the oft-ridiculed fringe politician rose to become one of leading lights of the global populist right alongside Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump.

“Going to jail, being killed or victory,” predicted Brazil’s then president as he grappled with a deluge of political crises in August 2021.

Continue reading...

Relief for campaigners as five-star hotel on Milos’s famous ‘moon beach’ halted

Posted on by

Authorities revoke building licence for cascading hotel complex on one of Greece’s most photographed shorelines

Environmental campaigners have welcomed a decision to halt construction of a disputed five-star hotel on a Greek beach known for its outstanding natural beauty.

Local authorities on the Cycladic island of Milos said a building licence for the resort on the world-renowned “moon beach” had been revoked by the municipality’s planning department after falling short of inspection standards.

Continue reading...

Venezuela says 11 killed in US boat strike were not gang members amid reports vessel was returning to shore

Posted on by

Interior minister says ‘murder has been committed’ while US Congress demands justification for attack

None of the 11 people killed in a US military strike on a boat in the Caribbean last week were members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, Venezuela’s interior minister has said, while US media reported the attack came after the vessel had turned around and was heading back to shore.

The administration of Donald Trump has said the boat was transporting illegal narcotics, but has provided little further information about the incident, even amid demands from members of the US Congress for a justification for the action.

Continue reading...

Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years for plotting military coup in Brazil

Posted on by

Former president sought to ‘annihilate’ country’s democracy after losing 2022 election

​Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro ​has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for plotting a military coup​ and seeking to “annihilate” the South American country’s democracy.

Justices Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha and Cristiano Zanin ruled on ​Thursday that Bolsonaro – a former paratrooper who was elected president in 2018 – was guilty of seeking to forcibly cling to power after losing the 2022 election, meaning four of the five judges involved in the trial had found Brazil’s former leader guilty.

Continue reading...

Archaeologists scramble to evacuate Gaza artefacts threatened by Israeli strike

Posted on by

Officials hurriedly remove nearly three decades of finds in ‘high-risk operation’

An official in charge of nearly three decades of archaeological finds in Gaza has described how the artefacts were hurriedly evacuated from a Gaza City building threatened by an Israeli strike.

“This was a high-risk operation, carried out in an extremely dangerous context for everyone involved – a real last-minute rescue,” said Olivier Poquillon, director of the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem (EBAF), which housed the relics.

Continue reading...

Canada: Carney unveils array of national projects to ‘turbocharge’ economy

Posted on by

List leaves out oil pipelines and focuses on LNG expansion, mines and nuclear power as it fends off US trade war

Canada’s Liberal government has said that a liquefied natural gas facility, critical mineral mines, a nuclear reactor and port expansion will mark the first wave of major national projects to “turbocharge” the country’s economy as it fends off a trade war with the United States.

Notably, the list unveiled by the prime minster, Mark Carney, on Thursday does not include any new oil pipelines – projects which have proven to be deeply divisive and politically fractious in recent years.

Continue reading...

What did Jair Bolsonaro’s trial reveal about an attempted coup in Brazil?

Posted on by

Far-right ex-president was found to have led a ‘criminal organisation’ to try to stay in power

Brazil’s supreme court has made Jair Bolsonaro the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted for attempting a coup.

The 70-year-old far-right leader claims he is the victim of political persecution, but three out of five judges concluded on Thursday that it was sufficiently proven that Bolsonaro and his close allies attempted to overturn the 2022 election, which he lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Continue reading...

UK should work with Nato on new missile defence system to counter Russia, experts say

Posted on by

After Russian drones entered Polish airspace, two authors of the UK strategic defence review said Europe would need to build up its defences

Britain should work with Nato allies in developing an integrated air and missile defence system after the incursion of nearly 20 Russian drones into Poland, according to two authors of the UK strategic defence review.

Fiona Hill, a former White House adviser, said that Russia was “testing the limits” of Europe’s defences at a time when the military commitment of the US to Nato was uncertain.

Continue reading...

Fiji ant study provides new evidence of insects’ decline on remote islands

Posted on by

DNA analysis of endemic specimens in museums finds 79% of ant populations in Pacific archipelago are shrinking

Island-dwelling insects have not been spared the ravages of humanity that have pushed so many of their invertebrate kin into freefall around the world, new research on Fijian ant populations has found.

Hundreds of thousands of insect species have been lost over the past 150 years and it is believed the world is now losing between 1% and 2.5% a year of its remaining insect biomass – a decline so steep that many entomologists say we are living through an “insect apocalypse”. Yet long-term data for individual insect populations is sparse and patchy.

Continue reading...

Lawmaker calls for French criminal investigation into TikTok

Posted on by

Move comes after parliamentary inquiry into social media platform’s psychological effects on minors

A French lawmaker has asked the state prosecutor for a criminal investigation into whether TikTok was responsible for “endangering the lives” of its young users.

Arthur Delaporte, a Socialist MP, said he co-chaired a six-month French parliamentary inquiry into TikTok’s psychological effects on minors and heard testimony from families, social media executives and influencers.

Continue reading...

Europe’s far-right leaders attack ‘hate-mongering left’ after Charlie Kirk murder

Posted on by

Viktor Orbán claims death of Turning Point USA’s founder was ‘result of international hate campaign’ as prominent figures pay tribute

European far-right leaders have lauded Charlie Kirk, the influential 31-year-old conservative US activist who was fatally shot on Wednesday, with several also claiming his death was a consequence of violent leftwing rhetoric.

The European parliament briefly descended into chaos as far-right MEPs demanded a minute’s silence to honour Kirk, a rising star of Trump’s Maga movement, who was hit in the neck by a single bullet as he addressed students at Utah Valley University.

Continue reading...

Politicians in at least 51 countries used anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric during elections, NGO finds

Posted on by

Rights group also finds rise in openly gay, bisexual and transgender people running for office in 36 countries

Politicians in at least 51 countries used homophobic or transphobic rhetoric during elections last year, from depicting LGBTQ+ identity as a foreign threat to condemning “gender ideology”, according to a new study of 60 countries and the EU.

However, there were also gains for LGBTQ+ representation in some countries. Openly gay, bisexual and transgender people ran for office in at least 36 countries, including for the first time in Botswana, Namibia and Romania – albeit unsuccessfully – according to the report by Outright International. The number of LGBTQ+ elected officials doubled to at least 233 in Brazil.

Continue reading...

‘Despicable’: Republicans and Democrats condemn violence after Charlie Kirk killing

Posted on by

US lawmakers, in bipartisan rebuke, say violence has no place in America as Trump orders flags lowered

The killing of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college on Wednesday afternoon prompted outrage from Democrats and Republicans over the latest act of political violence in the United States, with Donald Trump lamenting the loss of a key ally.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” the US president posted on his Truth Social platform.

Continue reading...

Flash floods in Indonesia leave at least 15 people dead and 10 missing

Posted on by

Torrential rains cause flooding and landslides in East Nusa Tenggara province and on the tourist island of Bali

Rescuers have recovered the bodies of 15 people who have died in flash flooding in two Indonesian provinces, while authorities said 10 others were missing.

Torrential rains beginning on Monday caused flooding and landslides in East Nusa Tenggara province and on the island of Bali.

Continue reading...

Global press freedom suffers sharpest fall in 50 years, report finds

Posted on by

The International IDEA’s survey of democratic markers finds US is offering ‘encouragement’ to populist leaders

Press freedom around the world has suffered its sharpest fall in 50 years as global democracy weakens dramatically, a landmark report has found.

According to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), democracy has declined in 94 countries over the last five years and only a third have made progress.

Continue reading...

Almost all German pilots admit to napping during flights in union survey

Posted on by

Pilots’ union says the issue has become a ‘worrying reality’ as a result of staff shortages and operation pressure

A German pilots’ union has said that napping during flights has become a “worrying reality” for its members, as it sounded the alarm over “increasing fatigue” in the sector.

The Vereinigung Cockpit union said it had carried out a survey of more than 900 pilots in recent weeks, which found that 93% of them admitted to napping during a flight in the past few months.

Continue reading...