Police initially believed they had intercepted a drunk driver as they chased car traveling at 93mph on the wrong side of the road
When police in Canada responded to reports of a car travelling at 150km per hour (93mph) on the wrong side of the road, they initially believed they had intercepted a drunk driver.
So officers were surprised to discover that the driver was in fact an 11-year-old boy.
Continue reading...Both governments are claiming responsibility for rescue of nine Papua New Guinean nationals last month
Tensions between China and Taiwan have found an unlikely battleground – a fight over who rescued nine Papua New Guinean sailors who were lost at sea for nearly a month.
The dispute came after the rescue of the Papua New Guinean nationals in Solomon Island waters after 29 days lost at sea, late in February.
Continue reading...Confidence and supply agreement will keep Trudeau in office until 2025 in return for action on pharmaceutical and dental programs
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has struck a deal with a political rival that would keep in him power until 2025. In exchange for support from the New Democratic party on key votes, Trudeau’s Liberals have pledged progress on national pharmaceutical and dental care programs.
“With so much instability around us, Canadians need stability,” said the prime minister as he announced the deal with the NDP on Tuesday morning.
Continue reading...Grain elevator built in 1897 that towered over Elva in Manitoba symbolic of western Canada’s history and heritage
For nearly 125 years, a wooden grain elevator towered over the town of Elva, visible from miles away and distinguishing the community as an economic hub in the Canadian Prairies.
The structure endured frigid cold, beating rains and harsh sun, but after decades of neglect, its owner has announced plans to dismantle the country’s oldest “prairie castle”, closing a chapter in the region’s history.
Continue reading...Analysts say chancellor has wriggle room for limited package of measures in Wednesday’s mini-budget, as US Fed chair signals more aggressive rate rises to tame inflation
Bethany Beckett, UK economist at Capital Economics, has looked at what the chancellor might do tomorrow.
Notwithstanding the deterioration in the public finances in February, large revisions to the back data mean that borrowing in 2021/22 is on track to undershoot the OBR’s October 2021 forecast by a huge £23bn.
Even so, we suspect the sharper rise in debt interest costs in February than many expected may embolden the chancellor to keep a fairly tight grip on the public finances in tomorrow’s spring statement.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Ukraine president says convoy seized near Mangush in south; US embassy in Kyiv says children ‘illegally removed’ from Russian-controlled territories
The Ukrainian military claims its forces have retaken the town of Makariv, just 50km west of Kyiv.
In an update provided by the general staff of the armed forces, officials said its forces pushed Russian troops out of the town.
Continue reading...Exclusive: documents seen by the Guardian prove Assad minister’s boast that evading financial sanctions has ‘become a Syrian craft’
The Syrian regime is setting up shell companies in a systematic attempt to avoid sanctions, according to official documents obtained by the Guardian.
The documents, not publicly available, detail at least three companies established in Syria on the same day with the explicit purpose of operating as a shell to buy shares and manage other companies.
Continue reading...City of Shenyang has barred residents from leaving without a 48-hour negative test result and put all housing compounds under ‘closed management’
China has locked down an industrial city of 9 million people overnight and reported more than 4,000 virus cases, as the nation’s “zero-Covid” strategy is confronted by an Omicron wave.
Health authorities reported 4,770 new infections across the country on Tuesday, the bulk in the north-eastern province of Jilin, as the city of Shenyang in neighbouring Liaoning province was ordered to lock down late Monday.
Continue reading...Analysis: Putin’s ally needs to show enemies at home and abroad his strength, but needs his forces intact to prop up his brutal rule
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is primarily Vladimir Putin’s war, but if there is a second man whose name and reputation will be tied to the devastation unleashed by Moscow it is Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
His fighters were part of the first wave assault on the country, and died in large numbers around the Hostomel airbase, with one key commander among those killed.
Continue reading...As prices rise, there are warnings president could face another protest movement like gilets jaunes
Outside Lidl, Isabelle Martin, a childminder from a village in Creuse, in central France, was loading discounted eggs, sugar and milk into her car. With prices rising, the 55-year-old couldn’t stretch to a full trolley and could rarely afford to drive to Guéret, her nearest town.
“I’m constantly thinking about my bank balance,” she said. At home she turned lights off and cut heating, and she never filled her car’s petrol tank completely “because the cost would be too much of a shock”.
Continue reading...State media report no survivors after a Boeing 737-800 flight crashed into mountainous terrain with 132 on board
About an hour into its journey from Kunming to Gaungzhou, flight MU5735 fell out of the air. After cruising at an altitude of 29,100ft, it suddenly dropped to about 7,000ft where it briefly ascended before diving again and crashing into remote bamboo forest in the mountains near Wuzhou. The fall appears to have taken around two minutes, according to flight tracking data.
“The plane did not smoke during the fall,” a witness told the Beijing Youth Daily. “The fire started after it fell into the mountain, followed by a lot of smoke.”
Continue reading...Whereabouts of children taken by the military since the 2021 coup are mostly unknown, according to Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe
Hundreds of children have been detained by the Myanmar military since it seized power more than one year ago, with many held ransom by soldiers and police who are seeking to arrest their relatives, according to a minister of the country’s National Unity Government.
Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe, minister of Women, Youths and Children Affairs Ministry in the NUG, which was formed last year by elected lawmakers to challenge the junta, said 287 children under the age of 18 had been detained since 1 February 2021. Most had been held in police station detention centres, and some in prisons.
Continue reading...Refugees ‘very happy’ with declaration, while experts say ‘concrete steps’ must follow
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have welcomed the announcement by the US that it considers the violent repression of their largely Muslim ethnic group in Myanmar a genocide.
“We are very happy on the declaration of the genocide; many many thanks,” said 60-year-old Sala Uddin, who lives at Kutupalong camp, one of the many in Cox’s Bazar district that are now home to about 1 million Rohingya.
Continue reading...With the clack of a gavel, Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin opened the hearing. He began by noting Thomas’s hospitalization and wishing him a speedy recovery. He then laid out the rules, asking the audience to remain respectful and vowing to remove any loud or unruly protesters.
He then moved into the meat of his argument, touching on the significance of her nomination.
US ambassador in Moscow summoned for an official protest as EU ministers meet to discuss further sanctions
Russia has warned of a breach of its relations with Washington and summoned the US ambassador in Moscow for an official protest over Joe Biden’s labelling of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, as the US president held talks with European allies on efforts to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden talked to the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Italy on Monday as part of his effort to maintain a unified front to Moscow, amid signs of cracks within the EU on how far to go in imposing sanctions on Russian oil and gas.
Continue reading...Ketanji Brown Jackson promised to defend the US constitution and what she called the “grand experiment of American democracy” in her opening remarks to the Senate confirmation hearings that could see her become the first Black woman to sit on the US supreme court since in its 233 years of existence.
Jackson, 51, addressed the Senate judiciary committee on Monday at the start of four days of potentially bruising partisan wrangling over her nomination. She struck a conciliatory tone, stressing her ideological neutrality.
Continue reading...‘Russian state actors’ blamed for prank call made to Ben Wallace
• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
A video of defence secretary Ben Wallace being duped into speaking by phone to an impostor posing as the Ukrainian prime minister was published on Monday – hours after Downing Street said it believed Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax.
In the short clip, Wallace replies with scepticism and apparent confusion when the caller asks him questions.
Continue reading...Amnesty says Australian-Iranian Shokrollah Jebeli was subjected to ‘more than two years of torture’
An Australian-Iranian man in his eighties jailed over a financial dispute has died in prison in Iran, Amnesty International said, accusing Tehran of subjecting him to torture by denying urgent medical care.
Shokrollah Jebeli,83, who had been incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin prison since January 2020, died on Sunday after being taken from prison to hospital the previous day, Amnesty said.
Continue reading...Imran Khan cajoles and threatens his own and opposition lawmakers on eve of vote
With a vote of no-confidence looming over his government, Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, warned those planning to vote against him that they risk social disgrace, and that “no one will marry your children”.
The no-confidence vote is expected to be tabled on Friday 25 March, backed by a coalition of politicians who accuse Khan of bad governance and economic incompetence. In January inflation reached 13% and the cost of fuel and food rocketed.
Continue reading...Second whistleblower suggests to committee that top civil servants lied to cover up episode
A second whistleblower has gone public to say it was “widespread knowledge” in government that Boris Johnson ordered the prioritisation of an animal charity based in Afghanistan for evacuation during the Taliban takeover last summer.
Josie Stewart, who worked in the Foreign Office for seven years, including a stint in the Kabul embassy, suggested senior civil servants in the department had lied to cover up the embarrassing episode.
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