Category Archives: World News

Joe Biden calls Vladimir Putin a ‘war criminal’ – as it happened

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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed the US Congress seated in a high-backed office chair with a plain white wall behind him and a prominently-displayed Ukrainian flag to his right.

He was neatly turned out with a trimmed beard and wearing what has become his characteristic combat-green tee shirt, since Russia invaded Ukraine last month and he was forced to shelter in a hidden bunker somewhere in Kyiv with his top team.

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Hopes rise for Ukraine talks, but experts doubt Russia will pull out

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Analysis: Putin’s rhetoric remains uncompromising and analysts are sceptical negotiations will yield a lasting solution

As Russia has pursued its war with Ukraine, it has held parallel negotiations with Kyiv ostensibly seeking a peace deal from its own invasion of a neighbouring country.

Those talks, which appeared to be a sideshow to the continuing war, received an unexpected boost on Wednesday as both sides indicated that discussions had yielded some progress.

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Thousands of refugees expected in UK next week under Homes for Ukraine scheme

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Government says 5,500 visas granted and 20,000 applications submitted

Thousands of Ukrainians are expected to arrive in the UK next week following criticisms of the slow progress of government schemes.

The refugees minister, Richard Harrington, told a parliamentary committee that sponsors who had identified someone who wished to come to the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme would be able to apply from 18 March.

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Boris Johnson upbeat on Saudi oil supply as kingdom executes three more

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PM accused of ‘trading blood for oil’ as he seeks increased Middle East output to lessen reliance on Russia

Boris Johnson has hinted Saudi Arabia could speed up oil production to help calm spiralling energy prices for Britons, as he praised the country for improving its human rights record despite three more people being executed during his visit.

With pressure rising at home over a cost of living crisis compounded by western countries trying to end their reliance on Russian imports, the UK prime minister made a dash to the Middle East to urge leaders to help stabilise oil prices by ramping up supply.

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‘A long time coming’: Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori’s families joyful at release

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Relatives of the two Britons freed from Iran express gratitude as they head home

Iran’s release of the British-Iranian nationals Anoosheh Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been greeted with joy by their families, with Richard Ratcliffe saying: “Homecoming is a journey, not an arrival.”

Ratcliffe, who has been at the forefront of campaigning for his wife’s release since she was imprisoned in Tehran after going there to visit family, told broadcasters that there would have to be a recovery process, adding: “You can’t get back the time that’s gone.”

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Equality was key to ancient Mexican city’s success, study suggests

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At its peak Monte Albán was home to 17,000 people, despite a lack of water supplies or fertile land

Greater equality than that experienced in other Mesoamerican cities may have been key to the successes of an ancient Zapotec community in Mexico which survived far longer than any contemporaneous metropolis, a new study suggests.

The ruins of Monte Albán – which include pyramids, canals and a ballgame court – sit on a semi-arid hilltop above the city of Oaxaca. At its peak the city, founded in 500BC, was the administrative and religious capital for the Zapotec people, and home to 17,000 people, despite a lack of water supplies or fertile land.

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Powerful Japan earthquake strikes off coast of Fukushima, killing four

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Tsunami warning cancelled after quake cut power to 2m homes and damaged some buildings

A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima in north-east Japan on Wednesday evening, leaving four dead, and plunging more than 2m homes in the Tokyo area into darkness.

The region was devastated by a deadly 9.0 quake and tsunami 11 years ago that also triggered nuclear plant meltdowns, spewing massive radiation that still makes some parts uninhabitable.

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Prosecutors accuse China of campaign to spy on and harass dissidents in US

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Prosecutors have launched a series of criminal cases including one involving an alleged attempt to smear a congressional candidate

US prosecutors have accused Chinese government agents of trying to spy on and intimidate dissidents living in the United States, including a congressional candidate, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in New York.

The US justice department convened a Washington news conference to detail the accusations in a series of criminal cases.

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Eighth Mexican journalist to be killed in 2022 is shot outside his home

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Armando Linares López gunned down six weeks after mourning the murder of a colleague in the same city in Michoacán state

The murder crisis gripping Mexican journalism has claimed another life after a journalist was gunned down in the conflict-stricken state of Michoacán just six weeks after he announced the murder of a colleague.

Armando Linares López, the director of a news website called Michoacán Monitor, was reportedly shot at least eight times on Tuesday afternoon outside his home in the city of Zitácuro. He is the eighth Mexican journalist to be killed in 2022, compared with nine in the whole of last year.

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Brazil was alleged intended recipient of US couple’s nuclear submarine secrets

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Jonathan and Diana Toebbe are accused of trying to sell secrets to Brazil, which cooperated in an FBI operation against them

The country that an American spy couple tried to sell nuclear submarine secrets to last year has been revealed to be Brazil.

Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, a suburban couple who lived in Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested last October and charged with attempting to sell the design of US nuclear-powered submarines to someone they thought was a representative of a foreign power – but who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.

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Girl whose remains were found over 60 years ago in Arizona identified

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Sharon Lee Gallegos, found partially buried in a wash in 1960, was allegedly abducted from her grandmother’s New Mexico house

A little girl whose burned remains were found over 60 years ago in the Arizona desert has finally been identified.

The Yavapai county sheriff’s office said Tuesday the girl had been identified as four-year-old Sharon Lee Gallegos of New Mexico.

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UK spies who allegedly passed questions to CIA torturers subject to English law, court rules

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Abu Zubaydah, tortured at CIA ‘black sites’ in six different countries, has right to sue UK government

UK intelligence services who allegedly asked the CIA to put questions to a detainee who was being tortured in “black sites” were subject to the law of England and Wales and not that of the countries in which he was being held, the court of appeal has ruled.

The three appeal judges were asked to decide whether Abu Zubaydah, who was subjected to extreme mistreatment and torture at secret CIA “black sites” in six different countries, has the right to sue the UK government in England.

Zubaydah had no control whatever over his location and in all probability no knowledge of it either.

His location was irrelevant to the UK intelligence services and may have been unknown to them.

The claimant was undoubtedly rendered to the six countries in question precisely because this would enable him to be detained and tortured outside the laws and legal systems of those countries.

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Protests in Sudan after alleged gang-rape of young woman by security forces

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Women fear use of sexual violence as a ‘tactic’ against those protesting the coup, after attack on 18-year-old in Khartoum

Demonstrations took place across Sudan on Tuesday in protest at the alleged gang-rape of a teenager by security forces.

The 18-year-old said she was attacked in Khartoum on Monday by up to nine men dressed in the uniforms of the security forces involved in dispersing regular protests held across Sudan since October’s military coup.

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France may offer Corsica ‘autonomy’ as it struggles to quell protests

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Interior minister says government, faced with major crisis before April presidential election, open to talks

Paris could offer “autonomy” to Corsica, the French government has said, suggesting the state might be willing to loosen its historic, centralised grip on the Mediterranean island as it struggles to calm violent protests.

“We are ready to go as far as autonomy – there you go, the word has been said,” the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, told the regional newspaper Corse Matin before a two-day visit, that comes after two weeks of rioting in which a hundred people were injured and public buildings and police were attacked with homemade explosive devices.

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Fed expected to raise interest rates for first time since 2018, markets rise on Ukraine hopes – business live

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The UK government released $530m of its debts to Iran, ahead of Tehran’s release of two British-Iranian prisoners, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The prisoners are Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who had been detained by Iran for six years, and Anousheh Ashouri.

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Russia and Ukraine ‘close to agreeing’ on neutral status, says Sergei Lavrov

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Russian foreign minister says status comparable to Sweden or Austria being ‘seriously discussed’

A deal with Kyiv on “neutral status” for Ukraine as part of a peace agreement could be close, Russia’s foreign minister has said, as Ukrainian forces launched a wave of counterattacks against Russian forces.

Sergei Lavrov suggested in a media interview that talks with Kyiv were making ground despite the continued bloodshed, echoing cautiously optimistic comments overnight from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

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Ghislaine Maxwell lawyers say Scotty David should never have been on jury

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Attorneys reject explanation that Juror 50 ‘flew through’ screening questionnaire, which would have flagged he had been sexually abused

Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers have said the juror who did not disclose childhood sexual abuse provided a dubious explanation for the omission as they once again requested a new trial.

The juror, Scotty David, was questioned in court on 8 March about his lack of disclosure. David, who was Juror 50, told the judge, Alison Nathan, that he was distracted when he flew through a screening questionnaire for potential panelists.

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Widespread abuses since Myanmar coup may amount to war crimes, says UN report

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UN rights office warns military has shown ‘flagrant disregard for human life’ and has deliberately targeted civilians since it seized power on 1 February 2021

Myanmar’s military junta has committed widespread and systematic abuses against civilians that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the first comprehensive report to be produced by the UN’s human rights office since last year’s coup.

The UN rights office warns the military has shown “flagrant disregard for human life” and has deliberately targeted civilians since it seized power on 1 February 2021.

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Canada and US announce Arctic military exercises amid Russia tensions

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Drills will test response to aircraft and cruise missiles in vast and thinly defended northern region

Canada and the US have issued a rare public notice over planned military exercises in the Arctic amid growing concern over Russian aggression.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command said on Tuesday that it would hold air defence exercises throughout the Canadian Arctic, adding that the drills were meant to test the ability to “respond to both aircraft and cruise missiles” threatening the continent.

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