Category Archives: World News

Indian spiritualist Sadhguru on 100-day motorbike mission to save soil

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Yoga guru will visit dozens of countries en route from London to India to raise awareness of plight of one of nature’s greatest resources

One of India’s best-known spiritual leaders is embarking on a 100-day motorbike journey from London to India to raise awareness of one of nature’s most undervalued resources.

Sadhguru, or Jaggi Vasudev, is setting off on Monday on a 30,000km (18,600-mile) trip through Europe and the Middle East in an effort to “save soil”, meeting celebrities, environmentalists and influencers in dozens of countries along the way.

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After Ukraine, how will the world replace Russia’s oil products?

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A report from the International Energy Agency makes clear that viable alternatives are limited

As Boris Johnson flew to the Gulf this week to ask for more oil to replace supplies from Russia, he was accused by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, of “going cap in hand from dictator to dictator”.

At the same time, a report produced by the International Energy Agency (IEA) underlined just how limited the options are for any economy seeking to replace Russian crude and other oil products.

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Somerset House donor married to oligarch quits board

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Exclusive: Maria Adonyeva, who gave arts centre at least £380,000, also steps down as Tate patron

The wife of a Russian businessman who at one stage pleaded guilty to defrauding the Kazakh government out of $4m (£3m) has stepped down as a patron of the Tate and from a prestigious advisory board at Somerset House, where she was a major donor.

Maria Adonyeva, who has a London-based charitable foundation and has been pictured as recently as 2018 on her husband’s yacht with close friends, including the actor Melanie Griffith, has given at least £380,000 in the past two years to Somerset House, where she sat on the arts centre’s development advisory board.

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Pressure mounts on Koch Industries to halt business in Russia

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While hundreds of companies have paused operations, three Koch subsidiaries are still operating in the country

Pressure is mounting on Koch Industries, the conglomerate run by the rightwing billionaire Charles Koch, to pull out of Russia after it was revealed it was continuing to do business in Russia through three wholly-owned subsidiaries.

Hundreds of companies including Coca-Cola, KPMG, McDonald’s, Netflix and Starbucks have paused operations in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. But, as news site Popular Information revealed last week, three Koch subsidiaries are still operating in the country.

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Ukraine’s Zelenskiy calls for urgent peace talks and warns of catastrophe in Mariupol

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Russia has a chance to limit the damage by engaging in ‘meaningful’ talks, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy, amid fierce shelling in the south

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called urgently for “meaningful and fair” peace talks over Russia’s invasion amid further attacks, including a claim by Moscow that it had used a hypersonic missile for the first time, hitting a depot in the west of the country.

In a video address early on Saturday, Zelenskiy said: “It’s time to meet. Time to talk. It is time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise Russia’s losses will be so huge that several generations will not be enough to rebound.”

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‘That’s just Dmitry’: Nasa plays down threat to ISS amid Ukraine war

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Head of Russian space agency has made provocative comments about ending cooperation with US but missions are proceeding

The Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, has played down hostile comments by the head of the Russian space agency, after Russia said it would stop supplying rocket engines to US companies.

“That’s just Dmitry Rogozin,” Nelson told the Associated Press. “He spouts off every now and then. But at the end of the day, he’s worked with us.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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The left behind: the dual nationals still in jail in Iran

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Anoosheh Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe are free but other families in the west are waiting anxiously

Dotted across Europe and America are families of as many as 17 dual nationals still held in jail in Iran, watching nervously to find out whether their loved ones will follow Anoosheh Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on a plane to freedom, or be left behind.

Many fear their freedom is not being made a precondition of the west agreeing a nuclear deal with Iran in the talks nearing a climax in Vienna. Without an acknowledged debt to repay like the UK’s, some of their countries may have trouble striking deals, and that worries the families.

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Ottawa truck convoy cost the city more than C$36m – mainly in police expenses

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The costs were more than twice the amount the city budgeted for affordable and supportive housing

The truck convoy that paralyzed much of downtown Ottawa for nearly a month cost the city more than C$36m, officials have said, and the figure is expected to rise in the coming weeks.

A memo released by the city on Friday said policing costs accounted for the vast majority of the $36.3m bill.

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Ukrainian refugees with UK relatives frustrated by Home Office visa delays

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People who have applied to join relatives in the UK face long waits for visa approvals

Ukrainian refugees waiting to travel to join relatives in Britain have voiced frustration at the length of time the Home Office is taking to process UK visas, despite government promises to streamline the system.

As the Homes for Ukraine scheme launched on Friday, allowing UK residents to sponsor visas for non-family members, Ukrainians who had already applied to join relatives in Britain under an earlier scheme expressed dismay at the long waits for visa approvals.

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DP World’s controversial history of P&O ownership

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Analysis: The economic model of the firm, ultimately owned by Dubai royalty, was under question even before the mass sackings

• Angry protests against P&O Ferries take place at UK ports

When Dubai Ports Ltd first bought up the ports and ships of P&O 16 years ago, the question that preoccupied a country reeling from the 2005 Islamist terrorist attacks was Britain’s physical security.

Now, the questions are focused on the economic security of Britain’s workforce.

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Fighting reaches central Mariupol as shelling hinders rescue attempts

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Russia claims to be ‘tightening noose’ around south-eastern port city as thousands still stranded

Fighting has reached the centre of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, as attempts to rescue people trapped under the rubble of a bombed-out theatre were again hampered by Russian shelling.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces were “tightening the noose” around the city, and that “fighting against nationalists” was taking place in the city centre. Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, appeared to confirm the claims, telling the BBC that fighting was “really active”. “Tanks and machine-gun battles continue,” he said. “Everybody is hiding in bunkers.”

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Gay rights activist among latest known victims of Ukraine war

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Details emerge of deaths of a Kharkiv Pride volunteer, an actor, and an American visiting his partner

A gay rights activist from Kharkiv, Shchemur was killed during the Russian bombardment of the city centre, her colleagues at Kharkiv Pride said on Thursday. She was killed at the local territorial defence office where she volunteered, they said.

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Germany investigates £1bn Tui share transfer by sanctioned Russian oligarch

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Alexei Mordashov sold most of 34% stake in world’s biggest tourism operator to entity controlled by his wife

Germany is investigating deals under which most of the stake in Tui held by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov was transferred to an entity controlled by his wife, Marina Mordashova, Tui said on Friday.

Tui, the world’s biggest holiday company, was informed this week that Mordashova controls Ondero Ltd, which bought stakes in Mordashov’s Unifirm Ltd, Tui’s top shareholder, from two of his subsidiaries on 28 February.

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British-Iranian Morad Tahbaz returned to Tehran prison

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Family says he was taken from home in Iranian capital by armed guards only 48 hours after being released

Morad Tahbaz, the British-Iranian given a furlough as part of a deal to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori has been returned to Evin prison in Tehran under armed guard only 48 hours after being released.

The Foreign Office insisted that the Iranians have told them that Tahbaz is only being returned to the prison to have an ankle tag installed and they expect to see him returned home in the coming hours.

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Syrians join Russian ranks in Ukraine as Putin calls in Assad’s debt

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Analysis: Safe in his palace, Syrian leader appears to have given Moscow carte blanche to airlift his army

After 11 years of war, the destruction of towns, cities and much of the Syrian military, Bashar al-Assad’s army has launched a recruitment drive. But the recruits are not fresh from bootcamps and will not fight on the home front. They are the vanguard of what could be the biggest state-backed mercenary force in the world. Within days, Syrian troops could be deployed to reinforce the stalled Russian frontlines in Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin is about to extract a lethal price for Moscow’s rescue of the Syrian leader.

The first Syrian troops to join Putin’s ranks – an advance force of 150 – arrived in Russia on Thursday, European intelligence officials claim. Ukrainian military intelligence, echoing a claim by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, believes 40,000 Syrians have signed up to fight – a figure that would represent a sizeable chunk of the battle-ready capacity of the country’s entire military.

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Growing calls in Caribbean to cut ties to monarchy as royals fly out

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William and Kate’s visit seen as attempt to persuade countries not to follow Barbados in ditching monarchy

The UK should be helping Caribbean nations sever ties with the monarchy rather than sending the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on a charm offensive, Caribbean experts and Windrush campaigners say, predicting that Barbados’s decision to remove the Queen as head of state may have a domino effect across the region.

The royals will embark on a tour of Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas on Saturday that is widely viewed as an attempt to persuade other Caribbean nations not to follow Barbados’s example, after the Queen was said to have been dismayed by the island’s move.

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Government knew of P&O Ferries sackings the day before, No 10 admits

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Labour and unions demand immediate action including suspending licences of parent company DP World

Unions and the Labour party have demanded immediate action over the sacking of 800 British crew by P&O Ferries, including suspending the licences of its parent company, DP World, as it emerged the government was made aware of the move the previous night.

Amid public calls for a boycott of P&O and protests at ports, unions demanded the government urge the firm to reverse its decision, and curb DP World’s involvement in planned freeports.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 23 of the invasion

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Food supply fears as Biden plans to warn Chinese president against providing military support for Russia

Russia’s bombardment in the east of Ukraine continued on Friday. In the streets of Mariupol, where 350,000 civilians have been stranded with little food or water, Russia’s armed forces were “tightening the noose” around the city, a spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry said. In the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s state emergency service said a multistorey teaching building had been shelled on Friday morning, killing one person, wounding 11 and trapping one other in the rubble.

Russian missiles struck an aircraft repair plant in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, 50 miles from the border with Poland and a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Ukrainians. Blasts were heard at about 6am on Friday, preceded by the sound of air raid sirens, and a mushroom-shaped plume of smoke could be seen rising in the sky.

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Sumaya Sadurni: photojournalist and ‘rock’n’roll Mother Teresa’ dies at 32

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Described as ‘outstanding and fearless’ by Bobi Wine, tributes have been paid to Sadurni, whose work featured in the Guardian and New York Times

Sumaya Sadurni Carrasco has died while travelling to take photographs for the Guardian’s Saturday magazine in northern Uganda. Thomas Mugisha, an NGO worker, also died in the accident on 7 March.

Sumy, as she was known, was a talented, driven and courageous photojournalist with a rare gift for friendship. At just 32 years old, she had built a powerful body of work, which had been published in some of the world’s best-known publications; in 2020 she was shortlisted for the Guardian’s agency photographer of the year. She also leaves a legacy of knowledge and inspiration that she passed on to young photographers as a Uganda Press Photo award mentor, a teacher at Makerere University and a Canon trainer.

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Papua New Guinean MP charged with murder over shooting death in restaurant

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First-term government MP Lohia Boe Samuel has been charged with murder over the death of Robert Jerry last week

A Papua New Guinean MP has been charged with murder, after the shooting death of a man at a restaurant in the capital of Port Moresby last week.

Police will allege that Lohia Boe Samuel, the MP for Moresby North-West, was having dinner with Robert Jerry and another man at Fushion 2 restaurant on Friday 11 March when a firearm was discharged, killing Jerry.

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