Category Archives: World News

Canadian police arrest at least 100 protesters in bid to break up Ottawa truck blockade

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At least 21 vehicles towed as police start breaking up protest camp that has paralysed Canada’s capital for several weeks

Police in Ottawa have begun arresting protesters and towing away vehicles in an effort to break up the so-called “freedom convoy” that has paralysed Canada’s capital for weeks and prompted the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to declare a national emergency

By Friday evening, at least 100 people had been arrested, mostly on mischief charges, and at least 21 vehicles had been towed, including all of those blocking one of the city’s major streets, as police exercised emergency powers that Trudeau invoked earlier this week.

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Ukraine crisis brings British intelligence out of the shadows

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Analysis: warnings of Russian invasion issued in bid to shape the narrative and win information war with Kremlin

British intelligence, so used to operating in the shadows, has been thrust into the spotlight during the Ukraine crisis, cited by Boris Johnson on Wednesday to warn that Russian troop numbers were still increasing or by the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, last month to warn of a possible coup in Kyiv.

As the crisis has intensified, the warnings have, if anything, become even less subtle. An extraordinary video released on Thursday by the Ministry of Defence, billed in capital letters as an “intelligence update”, included a Dad’s Army-style map showing a possible Russian invasion plan and other assessments aimed at the general public.

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Last piece of Putin’s puzzle slots into place: preparing Russians for war

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Analysis: Just as Russian armour and helicopters are edging up the border, Russian messaging is also advancing to the brink

The omens of impending war we were warned about now seem to be lining up like the horsemen of the apocalypse.

The field hospitals have been set near the border, blood banks have reportedly been brought in. On the information war front, a dossier of alleged Ukraine war crimes circulated at the UN security council, and a video popped up purporting to show an attempted Ukrainian attack on chlorine tanks in the Donbas.

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What does it mean to ‘plead the fifth’ – and will Donald Trump do it?

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The ex-president has been ordered to testify in a New York fraud case. Will he invoke his constitutional right to remain silent?

Donald Trump and his two eldest children have been ordered by a New York judge to appear for a deposition within 21 days, as part of an investigation into the Trump family finances. The development presents the former US president with a dilemma: should he invoke his right to silence by pleading the fifth?

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Brad Pitt sues ex-wife Angelina Jolie for selling stake in French winery

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Pitt says Jolie broke their agreement not to sell their interests in Château Miraval without the other’s consent

Brad Pitt has sued his ex-wife Angelina Jolie for selling her stake in a French winery they had bought together – and where they got married – to a Russian businessman.

In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Thursday, Pitt said Jolie had broken their agreement not to sell their interests in Château Miraval without the other’s consent by selling her stake to a unit of Stoli Group, a spirits maker controlled by oligarch Yuri Shefler.

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‘Most harmful thing’ – how spyware is stifling human rights in Bahrain

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Growing evidence shows Gulf state’s friends and enemies are being targeted by NSO Group software

Mohammed al-Tajer was caught off guard when his iPhone pinged last November with a warning that said his phone had been targeted by a nation state.

The 55-year-old lawyer from Bahrain had been known among dissidents for his “fearless” defence of opposition leaders and protesters after the 2011 pro-democracy uprising in the tiny Gulf state, when a series of demonstrations and protests were violently suppressed by authorities with the help of Saudi forces.

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Prince Harry ‘does not feel safe in UK’, lawyers tell high court

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Legal hearing challenges Home Office decision to prevent duke from paying for police protection when visiting

Prince Harry “does not feel safe” when he is visiting the UK, a place that “is, and always will be, his home”, his legal team have told the high court.

His desire to return to see family and friends was emphasised on the first day of a legal hearing related to his claim over the Home Office’s decision not to allow him to pay for police protection for himself and his family while in the UK.

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‘Finger cutter’ drug lord arrested in Switzerland

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Flor Bressers, on Belgian and Europol most-wanted lists, has been on the run since 2020

One of Europe’s most-wanted drug lords, a Belgian with a master’s degree in criminology, has been arrested in Switzerland after two years on the run.

Flor Bressers, 35, nicknamed “the finger cutter”, has been sought since 2020 when he was given a four-year jail sentence for kidnapping, slashing with a razor and beating a Dutch florist who failed to smuggle drugs past UK customs.

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Six African countries to begin making mRNA vaccines as part of WHO scheme

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Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia first countries to be assisted by global mRNA hub

Six African countries – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia – will be the first on the continent to receive the technology needed to produce their own mRNA vaccines from a scheme headed by the World Health Organization.

The groundbreaking project aims to assist low- and middle-income countries in manufacturing mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards, with the aim of ending much of the reliance of African countries on vaccine manufacturers outside the continent.

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‘Insightful and courageous’: Gabon activist Hervé Mombo Kinga dies of Covid

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Celebrated blogger had suffered ill health after spending 17 months in prison for speaking out against president Ali Bongo

Hervé Mombo Kinga, the pro-democracy activist and celebrated blogger who spent 17 months in jail for insulting the Gabonese president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, was not impressed when he saw the pictures of the leader limping up the stairs of France’s presidential palace.

Kinga, who died last week at 47 after contracting Covid, was infuriated by the episode – widely shared in the west African country of Gabon, despite the embarrassment it caused the president, whose family has held power for more than five decades.

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How citizenship row clouded Eileen Gu’s Olympics

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Success of Chinese American skier should have been a positive story but geopolitics got in the way

Until recently, the US-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu – or Gu Ailing as she is known in China – was one of the rising numbers of Chinese Americans straddling the two countries. They are comfortable operating between the two cultures and systems, taking pride in their heritage as well as their upbringing.

Gu, now 18, was born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother. She’s a big fan of Chinese dumplings and, every summer, she flew back to Beijing to attend cram school for mathematics. “When I’m in China, I’m Chinese and when I go to America, I’m American,” she once said.

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Republicans who opposed racial justice protests hope truckers ‘clog up’ US cities

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Lawmakers including Ron Paul and Ron DeSantis say they would back disruption of a Canadian-style trucker convoy

In the wake of racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd, a wave of Republican lawmakers supported legislation to punish protesters who blocked roads. Now some of those same Republicans are supporting similar tactics from conservative trucker convoys protesting against vaccine mandates.

Last year, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, signed an anti-rioting law that stiffened penalties for protesters who blocked roads and even gave some legal protection to drivers who ran them over. It went so far that in September a federal judge struck down the law, ruling it unconstitutional.

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‘No light at the end’: How Hong Kong’s Covid response went so wrong

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A policy of admitting every positive case to hospital means thousands are being added to an already huge backlog every day

The beds pile up outside Hong Kong’s Caritas hospital. In the cold night, elderly patients lie on gurneys covered with blankets and thermal foil sheets. A woman in pink folds her arms against the chill, while another reaches across her bed in an apparent gesture of comfort to a neighbour. Nearby, others crowd into yellow and blue spillover tents lining the car park edges. The hospital staff attend people calling out when they can but they are outnumbered. Wails from patients carry through the air.

There are similar scenes across the city, where 11 public hospitals were operating at or beyond capacity as of Friday. Private hospitals refuse to take Covid patients. Photos supplied to the Guardian show a treatment room inside one hospital earlier this week (88% capacity) with gurneys three deep across the thoroughfare, on a floor strewn with garbage. Bathrooms that no one has had time to clean were soiled with faeces, dirt and discarded biohazard bags.

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Somalis in crowded camps on ‘brink of death’ as drought worsens

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UN warns of looming catastrophe as hundreds of thousands more arrive at settlements that do not have enough food or water

Somalia’s displacement camps are coming under intense pressure with more than 300,000 people leaving their homes in search of food and water so far this year as the country experiences its worst drought in decades.

People have been walking miles to camps, already home to those escaping the country’s protracted violence, after three consecutive failed rainy seasons since October 2020 that have decimated crops and livestock. Somalia has more than 2,400 such settlements, which already lack resources.

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Dublin city council takes street artists to court over murals

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Subset collective to enter proceedings after 10 year ‘game of cat and mouse’ over murals including one of Sir David Attenborough

Across the world, public murals have given bursts of cultural and political expression to cityscapes. Some of their creators, such as Banksy, have even become millionaires in the process.

But in Ireland, a collective of street artists known as Subset are about to enter a court battle as part of a 10-year “game of cat and mouse” with Dublin city council over three murals, including one celebrating the life of Sir David Attenborough.

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Protesters defy police presence in Ottawa after officers warn of crackdown

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Justin Trudeau says ‘high time these illegal and dangerous activities stop’ after nearly three weeks in Canadian capital

Truckers who have blockaded downtown Ottawa for nearly three weeks have defied a growing police presence in the Canadian capital and ignored repeated warnings that they could face steep fines and possible arrest.

Officers had warned of an impending crackdown on Thursday, as busloads of police reinforcements arrived in the city and work crews took the rare step of erecting metal fences outside the senate and parliament.

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‘We thought the war has started,’ says resident of eastern Ukrainian city hit by shells – video

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A resident of a city in eastern Ukraine where a kindergarten was hit by shelling from Russian-backed separatists has said that he thought the artillery barrage meant that war had started. 

'We were getting ready to go to work, we got up and just like back in 2014 and 2015 there was a huge noise, it was not far away,' Dmytro, a resident of Stanytsia Luhanska, said.

'We were all anxious and panicked because we knew, we expected some provocations exactly at this time so we thought that the war has indeed started,' he added.

The incidents come at a time of global concern over the prospect of a wider war, with more than 100,000 Russian troops near the Ukrainian frontier. Moscow denies it is planning an invasion and has said this week it is pulling back some troops, though western countries say they are not convinced it is

Shelling by Russian-backed separatists raises tensions in east Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine crisis latest news: live updates as US warns of Russian invasion

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Britain steps up Ukraine warnings despite assurance from Moscow

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Analysis: evidence contrasts with statements from Russia that troops are being sent back to barracks

Britain believes that nearly half of Russian forces that have massed near Ukraine are now within 30 miles of the border, in contrast to statements from Moscow that its forces were being sent back to barracks.

Reinforcements from 14 battalions were in the process of arriving, officials added, while highlighting a pontoon bridge that had been briefly set up in Belarus in the past few days as an example of unusual military activity.

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Elon Musk criticised for likening Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in tweet

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Auschwitz museum says using photo of dictator is exploitative and ‘disrespects memory of all victims’

Elon Musk has been criticised by the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum for comparing the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to Adolf Hitler.

The chief executive of Tesla tweeted a meme that showed a photo of Hitler with the words “Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau” above the image and “I had a budget” below. The tweet was later deleted.

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Ukraine: Russian military buildup shows ‘no signs of slowing’, says Truss – video

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The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said there are no signs that Russia's military buildup on the Ukraine border is slowing down.

Speaking in Kyiv, Truss said the UK stood 'shoulder to shoulder' with Ukraine in the face of the threat

Russia and Ukraine crisis latest news: live updates as US warns of Russian invasion

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