Category Archives: World News

Rodrigo Chaves wins Costa Rica election amid sexual harassment allegations

Posted on by

Former finance minister was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women while working at the World Bank

A former finance minister who surprised many by making it into Costa Rica’s presidential runoff has easily won the election and is to become the Central American country’s new leader next month while still fending off accusations of sexual harassment when he worked at the World Bank.

With nearly all polling stations reporting, the conservative economist Rodrigo Chaves had 53% of the vote, compared with 47% for former president José Figueres Ferrer, the supreme electoral tribunal said.

Continue reading...

Carrie Lam: a divisive leader in Hong Kong’s turbulent times

Posted on by

Tenure of woman who rose through ranks to become governor marked by controversies and scandals

Carrie Lam came to office pledging to unite Hong Kong, but she will leave accused of being a divisive leader of a politically turbulent city.

Lam entered Hong Kong’s civil service in 1980, with her colleagues labelling her a “houdadak”, or “good fighter”, because of her strong will in a bureaucratic battle. She eventually rose through the ranks to become the first female governor of the key financial hub in 2017. She announced on Monday that she will not seek a second five-year term of office.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war latest: Biden calls for Putin war crimes trial; Borodyanka worse than Bucha, says Ukrainian prosecutor

Posted on by

US president says Russian president is war criminal; Ukraine’s prosecutor general says Borodyanka will be worst-hit by Russian invasion in Kyiv region

Before I hand this liveblog over to my colleague, Martin Belam, here is a quick refresher of where the situation currently stands.

In the light of heinous provocation of Ukrainian radicals in Bucha Russia requested a meeting of UN Security Council on Monday April 4.”

Russian Federation requested a meeting of the UN Security Council in connection with the provocation of the Ukrainian military and radicals in the city of Bucha.

The idea behind the next crime of the ‘Kyiv’s regime’ is the disruption of peace negotiations and the escalation of violence.”

Continue reading...

Telstra buyout of Digicel’s Pacific mobile networks threatened by ‘discriminatory’ new PNG tax

Posted on by

The $100m tax on companies controlling more than 40% of market is ‘arbitrary’ and ‘perplexing’, says telco Digicel

Digicel Group says it is considering legal options after Papua New Guinea imposed a $100m tax that the telecoms firm said had potential “implications” for the planned AU$2.1bn ($1.57bn) sale of the Pacific’s biggest mobile network to Australia’s Telstra.

Telstra Corp Ltd said last October that it would buy the Pacific operations of Digicel in a deal largely funded by the Australian government, seen by observers as a way to block China’s rising influence in the region. The operations include 2.5m mobile phone subscribers across PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and Nauru.

Continue reading...

The rise and rise of France’s far-right Marine Le Pen

Posted on by

National Rally leader is closing gap on Emmanuel Macron in polls for this month’s presidential election

From her housing estate in northern Marseille, Elisabeth, 68, who once voted for the left, will return a ballot for the far-right Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election this month. “People used to think Marine was nasty,” she said. “Now they realise she’s not. Other politicians are taking her ideas. They all talk like her now.”

Elisabeth left school at 16 and worked at a shoemaker’s, in factories and as a housekeeper, but her €800 pension barely covers bills and food. “I live on credit, overdrawn by the middle of the month,” she said. “I make a weak stew and it lasts me three days. But Le Pen will cut taxes and put money in our pockets.” She agrees with Le Pen’s anti-immigration stance. She feels “Europeans” are becoming outnumbered in multi-ethnic northern Marseille and worries about crime. “I’ve been mugged twice, once for a necklace, once for a cigarette,” she said. Society is tense and divided, she feels, but Le Pen will “calm things down”.

Continue reading...

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says she will not seek second term

Posted on by

Chief executive to leave office at end of June after five years marked by upheavals of anti-government protests

Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, who has governed the Chinese region since 2017, has announced she will not seek a second five-year term of office.

Lam’s tenure as the chief executive of one of Asia’s most significant financial hubs has been marked by the upheavals of anti-government protests and, more recently, Covid-19. Critics have accused her of helping Beijing to curtail Hong Kong’s freedoms.

Continue reading...

Sri Lanka’s cabinet resigns as protesters’ anger grows over economic crisis

Posted on by

All 26 cabinet ministers aside from the president and the prime minister quit as unrest over the country’s worst financial crisis in decades continues

Sri Lanka’s entire cabinet aside from the president and his sibling prime minister resigned from their posts on Sunday as the ruling political clan seeks to resolve a mounting economic crisis, with a social media blackout failing to halt another day of anti-government demonstrations.

The south Asian nation is facing severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials – along with record inflation and crippling power cuts – in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.

Continue reading...

UK travellers face disruption as Easter holiday getaway begins

Posted on by

Airports report long waits because of Covid checks and staff shortages, as tourist traffic eases near Dover

Passengers faced long queues at Heathrow and Manchester airports as the Easter holidays got under way.

Travellers vented frustration on social media as Covid checks, high passenger volumes and reported staff shortages and e-gate problems meant long waits for check-in at Heathrow.

Continue reading...

Blinken: growing evidence of Russian atrocities in Ukraine a ‘punch to the gut’

Posted on by

Secretary of state promises US will join allies in documenting atrocities and hold perpetrators accountable

Growing evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine are “a punch to the gut”, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday, promising that America would join its allies in documenting the atrocities to hold the perpetrators accountable.

A retreat of Russian forces around Kyiv has revealed evidence of atrocities against civilians as Ukrainian troops and journalists have moved back into a broad swathe of suburbs and towns around the capital.

Continue reading...

Imran Khan appears to want to keep power in Pakistan at any cost

Posted on by

Prime minister cuts an increasingly isolated figure – and his dramatic dissolution of parliament is a very risky move

Imran Khan’s dramatic move to dissolve Pakistan’s parliament on Sunday morning, ahead of a vote that almost certainly would have removed him from office, reads to many like the desperate actions of a prime minister who will try to hold on to power at any cost.

While his repeated allegations of a “foreign conspiracy” and pressure from the US being behind the no-confidence vote has played well to his diehard supporters, most of whom are vehemently opposed to the west, it is still a very risky move for Khan.

Continue reading...

Killing of civilians in Bucha and Kyiv condemned as ‘terrible war crime’

Posted on by

Europe pledges further sanctions against Russia after reports of killing of scores of unarmed Ukrainians

Russia stands accused of “terrible” war crimes, as western leaders condemned the killings of unarmed civilians in Bucha and the surrounding areas of Kyiv in alleged atrocities that prompted fresh demands for tougher action against Moscow.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Kremlin-ordered attack on his country amounted to genocide, after local officials reported scores of civilians had been killed in the towns of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel near the capital following the withdrawal of Russian forces.

Continue reading...

Sri Lanka protesters defy curfew after social media ban

Posted on by

State of emergency imposed on Friday as country faces severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials

Armed troops in Sri Lanka confronted crowds protesting against a worsening economic crisis, after a social media blackout failed to halt another day of anti-government demonstrations.

The south Asian nation is facing severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials – along with record inflation and crippling power cuts – in its most painful economic downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.

Continue reading...

Russian missiles strike fuel depot in key Ukraine port of Odesa

Posted on by

Officials say no casualties reported after attack, while evidence of war crimes around Kyiv mounts in wake of Russian withdrawal

Russian airstrikes have hit “critical infrastructure” in the Ukrainian city of Odesa as evidence of horrific war crimes in areas around Kyiv where Russian troops have pulled back continued to mount.

Odesa, an important port on the Black Sea coast and the main base for Ukraine’s navy, had largely been spared violence in the five-week-old conflict until the attacks early on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Pakistan’s PM calls for early election after vote of no confidence thrown out

Posted on by

Imran Khan alleges ‘foreign conspiracy’ to topple his government as US denies involvement

Pakistan is on the brink of a constitutional crisis and the prime minister, Imran Khan, is facing accusations of treason after he dissolved parliament and called fresh elections in order to block a no-confidence vote that was expected to remove him from power.

The former superstar cricketer turned politician stunned the country after he took the dramatic action of dissolving the legislature prior to a parliamentary vote that could have stripped him of his prime ministership.

Continue reading...

‘It was like a movie’: recaptured Bucha recounts violence of Russian invasion

Posted on by

Claims of war crimes in the Ukraine city mount up as residents tell of a month of fear

It was, said Taras Schevchenko, like a scene from a film.

At 6am on the morning of 24 February, from the vantage point of the kitchen window of his fifth-storey apartment overlooking Gostomel airport, on the northern outskirts of the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Schevchenko watched as about 20 Russian helicopters flew into vision, spilling paratroopers on to the tarmac below.

Continue reading...

Yemen: two-month ceasefire begins with hopes for peace talks

Posted on by

UN special envoy Hans Grundberg stresses importance of building on truce in effort to end six-year war

A UN-brokered two-month ceasefire in Yemen was broadly holding on its first full day with oil shipments reaching the port of Hodeida, including some ships that have been barred from entering for 88 days.

The ceasefire is the biggest step forward in the six-year war and is intended to apply inside and outside the country’s borders.

Continue reading...

Covid cases rise in Shanghai as millions remain in lockdown

Posted on by

Daily case numbers are some of the largest seen in China since the virus was first detected in Wuhan

Covid-19 cases in China’s largest city of Shanghai have risen again as millions remain isolated at home under a sweeping lockdown.

Health officials on Sunday reported 438 confirmed cases detected over the previous 24 hours, along with 7,788 asymptomatic cases. Both figures were up slightly from the day before.

Continue reading...

Red is dead: Russian anti-war protesters fly a new flag for peace

Posted on by

Seeing the tricolour as tainted, they took the ‘blood’ out to leave blue and white, then found others had done so too

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest developments

When Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine, anti-war Russians such as Kai Katonina, a 31-year-old designer who lives in Berlin, joined protests around the world. Katonina held up a sign that read “No to war”, but few in the crowd knew that they (Katonina’s preferred pronoun) were Russian.

They said: “Onlookers thought we were Ukrainians because our people look the same. It was crucial for us to stand apart and show that Russians also oppose the war. We needed to identify ourselves.”

Continue reading...

Disturbing claims of torture and sexual abuse at trial of New York ‘cult’ leader

Posted on by

Larry Ray accused of psychological abuse at the prestigious Sarah Lawrence college, in trial that echoes Nxivm case

New York is accustomed to high-profile trials, the details picked over like canapés at a cocktail party.

But the trial of Lawrence “Larry” Ray, on federal charges of sex trafficking, extortion and conspiracy has caused revulsion and horror, and raised troubling questions that go far beyond criminal justice.

Continue reading...

Biden rebuffed as US relations with Saudi Arabia and UAE hit new low

Posted on by

Analysis: As oil prices – and diplomatic tensions – rise, two of the biggest US allies are questioning the basis of their relationship

As Joe Biden moved to open US strategic oil reserves, his two biggest oil-producing allies have kept their tanks firmly shut. The UAE and Saudi Arabia continue to rebuff the US president as he attempts to counter soaring oil prices prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And both countries have been unusually frank about their refusal to step in.

The five-week-old war is bringing tensions to a head in several parts of the world, but perhaps nowhere is a regional order more under strain than the Middle East, where two of America’s biggest allies are now seriously questioning the foundations of their relationship.

Continue reading...