International Women’s Day marked with events around the world – live

Latest updates: follow reports from the UK and across the globe as well as data and research on IWD 2022

In the UK, the government’s big IWD announcement centres around the launch of a “global business partnership” to improve girls’ access to education and employment in developing countries by providing high quality skills training.

Here’s the gist of it:

The United Kingdom has long been a proud and mighty champion of this fundamental cause and today we take one leap further through our first Global Partnership of its kind - opening the opportunity for one million girls across the developing world to have access to high quality skills training.

Ensuring every girl and young woman across the globe receives 12 years of quality education is the greatest tool in our armoury to end the world’s great injustices.

Policing attracts some men who want “to exert and coerce” vulnerable people, the new national police lead on violence against women has admitted, as she urged officers to create a “call-out culture” to tackle sexist and misogynistic behaviour.

Deputy chief constable Maggie Blyth, who took up the post of national lead for violence against women and girls (VAWG) at the National Police Chiefs’ Council five months ago, said it was wrong to dismiss abusive, violent or sexist officers as a “few bad apples”.

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‘Women of the wild’: the platform giving India’s nature experts a voice

Frustrated by a lack of female representation, film-maker Akanksha Sood Singh set up an Instagram account to showcase ‘the untold stories of women working for science and nature’

“I wish these things wouldn’t happen to anyone,” says Akanksha Sood Singh, a wildlife film-maker based in Delhi. “But if it has happened, this is a safe space for women to come and to share their experiences.”

The safe space Sood Singh is referring to is the Instagram account Women of the Wild – India, which showcases “the untold stories of women working for science and nature”. The platform gives them a chance to promote their expertise, but also somewhere to share their experiences of working in what are often male-dominated fields where sexual harassment can often feature.

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UK faces large EU bill over Chinese imports fraud

Court rules government failed to fulfil obligation to collect correct amount of customs duties and VAT

The British government faces paying a hefty charge to the EU after the European court of justice ruled it had been negligent in allowing criminal gangs to flood European markets with cheap Chinese-made clothes and shoes.

Publishing its final ruling on Tuesday, the court concluded that the UK as member state had “failed to fulfil its obligations” under EU law to combat fraud and collect the correct amount of customs duties and VAT on imported Chinese goods. The failures by HMRC date from 2011 to 2017.

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Black Women Photographers on what International Women’s Day means to them

We hear from a some of the members of the Black Women Photographers collective, a group facilitating greater diversity in editorial photography

The Black Women Photographers collective, established via a Covid-19 relief fund, is approaching its second year of promoting and empowering Black female photographers, as well as increasing the visibility of their work.

In March, a virtual summit supported by Adobe will feature Raven B Varona, Kimberly Douglas, aka @kihmberlie, Audrey Woulard, Lola Flash, Lola Akinmade Åkerström, Amanda J Cain, NHL’s first Black woman team photographer, Whitney Matewe, DeLovie Kwagala, Cheriss May, Sade Ndya, Chaya Howell and Idara Ekpoh.

2017: My friends Dara and Isioma, who I have known since 2008 in boarding school. This photo was taken at one of our many mini alumni meetups. After spending six years of the most formative parts of our adolescence in a remote school campus – loving, hating and knowing each other – we can say that we come from each other.

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Juror at centre of Ghislaine Maxwell trial controversy to go before judge

Maxwell’s laywers want judge to declare mistrial after Scotty David revealed in post-trial interviews he had been abused as a child

The juror in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial who apparently did not disclose childhood sexual abuse during jury selection is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday morning for public questioning.

Juror no 50, whose name is Scotty David, might receive immunity, which would require that he answer Judge Alison Nathan’s questions about his failure to disclose said abuse.

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Sri Lanka to hold state funeral for beloved sacred elephant Raja

Raja, who will be stuffed for posterity, was considered so important that when he travelled he had his own security detail

Sri Lanka is in mourning after the death of the country’s most sacred elephant, who is to be given a state funeral and his remains to be preserved and stuffed “for future generations” on orders of the president.

Nadungamuwa Vijaya Raja, popularly known as Raja, was considered to be the largest tamed elephant in Asia and as a young calf he had been among those “chosen” as the elite elephants who carried sacred Buddhist relics during an annual parade in Sri Lanka.

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North Korea: satellite images suggest building work at nuclear test site for first time since 2018

Images captured by satellite showed very early signs of activity at the Punggye-ri site

Commercial satellite imagery shows construction at North Korea’s nuclear testing site for the first time since it was closed in 2018, US-based analysts said on Tuesday, adding to concerns the country could resume testing major weapons.

Images captured by satellite on Friday showed very early signs of activity at the Punggye-ri site, including construction of a new building, repair of another building, and what is possibly some lumber and sawdust, specialists at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) said in a report.

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Russia threatens Europe’s gas supplies as west mulls oil import ban over Ukraine invasion

Deputy prime minister raises prospect of closing Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany, and says rejecting Russian oil would be ‘catastrophic’ for world

Moscow has stoked fears of an energy war by threatening to close a major gas pipeline to Germany after the US pushed its European allies to consider banning Russian oil imports over its invasion of Ukraine.

In an address on Russian state television, Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said: “A rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market”, and claimed the price of oil could rise to more than US$300 a barrel.

Ukrainian intelligence claimed that a Russian general has died in fighting around Kharkiv, the second such officer killed in a week. It broadcast what it said was a conversation between Russian FSB officers discussing the death of Maj Gen Vitaly Gerasimov, and complaining that their secure communications no longer functioned inside Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, rallied the nation in a fresh late-night video address, saying that “heroic” resistance was making the war “like a nightmare” for Russia. Taking viewers on a tour of his quarters in Kyiv, he promised to stay in the capital until the war was won.

Several children were killed by Russian bombing in Sumy, according to the region’s military administration chief.

The humanitarian crisis continued to deepen, with 1.7 million Ukrainians thought to have fled the fighting, with the potential for the total to reach 5 million, the EU said. The UN human rights office has reported 406 confirmed civilian deaths but said the number was a vast undercount.

Zelenskiy is to address UK MPs on Tuesday via video link and is expected to plead for more arms and a no-fly zone over Ukraine to be enforced by Nato.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, claimed the prospects of the country joining the EU had greatly increased, according to Ukraine’s Unian website. The distance to EU membership had been as far away as the moon last week, but was now only from Kyiv to the city of Vinnitsa – a distance of just 262km or 162 miles, he said.

Fresh talks between Ukraine and Russia are expected, after a third round ended without agreement on the evacuation of civilians via humanitarian corridors, although a Ukrainian negotiator said small progress had been made. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, accused Vladimir Putin of “moral and political cynicism” and hypocrisy for making promises to protect civilians so they could flee only to Russia.

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Turkey’s trade in counterfeit goods booms, fuelled by falling lira

Value of country’s fakes tripled from 2019 to 2020 as it became main source of counterfeit designer clothes stopped at EU borders

Photos of fake Gucci bags, Louis Vuitton sweatpants and Nike sneakers are flaunted on the social media accounts of a Turkish store with more than 155,000 followers on TikTok. There are thousands of comments under the posts in English, Italian, Bulgarian, Polish, German, Spanish and French.

Turkey is the third biggest exporter of counterfeit products to the EU after China and Hong Kong, according to data on the value of goods seized. Falls in the value of the Turkish lira and the deterioration of the Turkish economy are further fuelling demand as such items become cheaper to traders buying in euros.

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Sumy: international students in Ukrainian city tell of desperation

Nigerian medical student escapes to safety but Indian coordinator remains trapped in hostel with wife and young baby

Against a constant backdrop of shelling and air raids, more than 1,200 international students remain trapped in the besieged city of Sumy, eastern Ukraine. Diplomatic efforts to evacuate them and create a safe corridor appear to have stalled.

Many of the students have run out of water, resorting at times to boiling ice, and are running out of food. In their desperation, many are contemplating taking a treacherous journey out of the city to Poltava, 110 miles to the south.

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‘We couldn’t stand it’: the Ukrainians travelling for days to flee Russian bombs and rockets

Millions of people are on the move, heading for Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova and Romania. It is Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the second world war

After four days on the road, sleeping in her car, Ludmila Lyskevska was in a defiant mood. “Putin has gone bonkers. He wants Ukraine to be part of his imperium,” she said, stretching her legs as snow fell from a white sky. “He’s managed to unite the whole country against him.”

Lyskevska was travelling in a three-car family convoy. The group was part of a vast caravan of vehicles waiting to leave war-stricken Ukraine and cross the border into Poland. Over the course of a 20-minute conversation, her group advanced a mere 100 metres. They had been queueing for 20 hours. Behind her, more cars arrived.

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Vitaly Gerasimov: second Russian general killed, Ukraine defence ministry claims

Ukrainian intelligence says major general in Russia’s 41st army died outside Kharkiv along with other senior officers

A Russian general has been killed in fighting around Kharkiv, Ukrainian intelligence has claimed, which would make him the second general the Russian army has lost in Ukraine in a week.

The intelligence arm of the Ukrainian defence ministry said Maj Gen Vitaly Gerasimov, chief of staff of the 41st Army, had been killed outside the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, along with other senior officers.

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Blow to Republicans as supreme court denies bid to overturn electoral maps

Party urged justices to overturn maps imposed in North Carolina and Pennsylvania that made elections more competitive

The US supreme court has rejected requests from Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to overturn electoral maps imposed by the state supreme court in both places that make elections more competitive.

The justices ruled 6-3 on Monday not to block the new North Carolina maps from going into effect, with justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas saying they would have paused the state supreme court’s ruling.

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Democrats and Republicans agree on plan to suspend trade relations with Russia and Belarus – live

Federal prosecutors were expected to make closing arguments today in the first jury trial of someone charged with joining in the 6 January attack of the US Capitol.

Guy Reffitt of Texas, the first of some 750 people charged with joining the riot to face trial in Washington, has been charged with carrying a semi-automatic handgun while on Capitol grounds and obstructing justice by threatening his children with harm if they reported him to authorities.

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‘Beyond understanding’: Odesa braced to see if Putin attacks city of such resonance for Russians

Russian warships have been moving ominously between the coast outside Odesa and annexed Crimea. Each morning, Odesa’s remaining residents wake up and check their progress

The tourist cafes are behind barricades. The grand opera house is surrounded by a wall of sandbags. Tank traps block the approaches to the legendary Potemkin steps.

Nobody in Odesa can quite believe that Vladimir Putin would launch an assault on this city, a place bound to Russia by family, literary and cultural ties, a place of almost mythical resonance for many Russians.

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Biden criticized over report of planned Saudi trip to discuss global oil supply

White House refuses to confirm that top advisers considering spring Saudi Arabia visit to propose increase in oil exports

Joe Biden attracted criticism from both progressives and Republicans after a report indicated the White House was planning a visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss global oil supply.

Axios reported on Sunday that Biden’s senior advisers were considering a spring trip to Saudi Arabia in an effort to improve relations and to propose a potential increase in oil exports.

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Russia trying to recruit Syrians to fight in Ukraine, says Pentagon

US defence official says it is ‘noteworthy that Putin believes he needs foreign fighters’

Russia has been trying to recruit Syrians to fight in Ukraine to bolster Moscow’s flagging invasion, according to the Pentagon.

A senior US defence official said it is unclear how many Syrians Vladimir Putin is seeking to recruit, but said “we find it noteworthy that he believes he needs to rely on foreign fighters”.

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address British MPs via video link on Tuesday

Ukraine’s president is expected to plead for more arms and repeat call for no-fly zone over Ukraine

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will address UK MPs via video link from Kyiv on Tuesday afternoon, when he is expected to plead for more arms and to repeat a call for a no-fly zone even though it has been rejected by Nato.

In a first, the leader’s speech will be broadcast direct into the Commons chamber with formal business suspended so that MPs can listen in with the help of simultaneous translation provided over headsets at 5pm.

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‘Humanitarian corridors’ leading to Russia or Belarus rejected by Kyiv

Ukraine president dismisses Moscow’s proposed routes for civilian evacuation as ‘completely immoral’

Kyiv has rejected an offer from Moscow to create “humanitarian corridors” allowing civilians to flee six heavily bombed Ukrainian cities after it emerged that most of the supposedly safe routes led directly to Russia or its ally, Belarus.

The Russian offer came before a third round of peace talks. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said in advance of the discussions that Moscow was ready to halt operations “in a moment” if Kyiv met a list of conditions. These included ceasing military action, changing its constitution to ensure neutrality, acknowledging Crimea as Russian territory and recognising the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.

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Hailed as heroes – Scottish gardeners who rescued trio from Ukraine

Joe McCarthy and Gary Taylor were held at gunpoint by Russians before successfully evacuating Irish woman and Nigerian men

Two Scottish gardeners have rescued three students – one Irish and two Nigerian – who were trapped in the wartorn city of Sumy in the north-east of Ukraine.

Along the way, the men were held at gunpoint by Russian soldiers – but were then rescued themselves by locals.

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