Fire reported at nuclear plant after Russian shelling, as France warns ‘worst is yet to come’ based on Macron call with Putin
Continue reading...Category Archives: World News
‘I’m pregnant, I left my husband behind’: the people forced to flee Putin’s war in Ukraine – video
Otaci is a Moldovan border town, on the opposite side of the Dniester River lies the Ukrainian city of Mohyliv-Podilskyi. As refugees spill over the bridge that links the two, local people are rallying together to provide them with warm food, shelter, internet and free onward travel in cars and taxis.
Since Putin's invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February, more than 1 million people have fled across the closest borders. The conflict could result in the 'largest refugee crisis this century', the UN refugee agency has warned, with up to 4 million people fleeing the country in the coming weeks and months. So far, more than 98,000 refugees have entered Moldova, Europe's poorest country
- Russia-Ukraine war: latest news
- Embraced or pushed back: on the Polish border, sadly, not all refugees are welcome
Embraced or pushed back: on the Polish border, sadly, not all refugees are welcome | Lorenzo Tondo
The warm reception given to Ukrainians starkly reveals the hostility to other desperate refugees on the Belarus border
At the train station in Przemyśl in Poland, thousands of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine get off the carriages every day, seeking asylum in Europe. As they arrive, dozens of Polish border guards and soldiers distribute food, water, blankets and hot tea with a smile.
I look on as the soldiers help Ukrainian women and children with their heavy luggage. I watch as they play with the children and caress their faces. As the scene unfolds, I can’t help but think that this is the same border force which, for months, a short distance north, along the same eastern border, has been violently pushing back asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who attempt to cross the frontier from Belarus.
Continue reading...‘Infants here don’t know how to eat’: millions facing famine in Madagascar
As sandstorms ruin crops and drought worsens food shortages, mothers are walking miles to feed their children at clinics
After four vicious storms in as many weeks and the worst drought in 40 years, there are fears that the hunger crisis facing 2 million people in southern Madagascar could become a famine. With record low rainfalls in the Grand Sud region, USAid’s Famine Early Warning Network is warning that large-scale humanitarian support will be needed until next year.
Food shortages have been compounded by three cyclones and one tropical storm that have ravaged parts of the south and east of the country since late January. The most recent hit the south-east coast on 22 February, affecting thousands of people.
Continue reading...Obesity rates likely to double by 2030 with highest rises in lower-income countries
More than half of women in South Africa projected to have condition, with no country expected to meet WHO target of halting rise, according to World Obesity Atlas figures
More than a billion people around the world will be obese by 2030 – double the number there was in 2010, according to new global estimates.
No country is on track to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) target to halt obesity by 2025, with one in five women and one in seven men predicted to have the condition by 2030.
Continue reading...Afghanistan six months on from the Taliban takeover – photo essay
The photojournalist Stefanie Glinski reports on a country traumatised and tired, with an uncertain future as unemployment and poverty spread and memories of freedoms fade
August’s adrenaline may have worn off but the harrowing memories have not faded. It’s been six months since the Taliban took Kabul, the country’s then president and his cabinet fled and thousands of people flooded the airport in panic, so desperate for a way out that several men tried to hold on to a departing plane and fell to their deaths.
Food distribution in the northern Jowzjan province. Due to the economic crisis, many people cannot afford food, even though it’s widely available in the market.
Continue reading...Swiss Gruyère wins world championship cheese contest for second time in a row
The cheese, made by Michael Spycher of Mountain Dairy Fritzenhaus, comes from a small dairy that works with just 12 farmers
A Gruyère from Switzerland has been named as the top cheese for the second consecutive time at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin.
The cheese from Bern, Switzerland, made its maker, Michael Spycher of Mountain Dairy Fritzenhaus, a three-time winner. Spycher also won in 2020 and 2008. The cheese, called Gourmino Le Gruyère AOP, earned a score of 98.423 out of 100.
Continue reading...Bangkok’s illicit craft brewers risk arrest under draconian laws
Big brewers maintain monopoly as smaller operations incur huge fines for even sharing photos of their beer
Naamcial’s craft beers often have distinctly Thai flavours, as he experiments with the country’s native produce, boiling the pulp of jackfruit and mango to mix into different creations. Yet his homemade products are forbidden in the kingdom.
Talking to the Guardian under a pseudonym, Naamcial says he would like to operate a legal brewery, but Thailand’s laws around alcohol production make this ambition almost impossible for newcomers. Current laws restrict brewing licences to manufacturers that have capital of 10 million baht (£230,000), while brewpubs must produce at least 100,000 litres a year and only serve their beer on their premises. The legislation effectively blocks new, small breweries from opening, and tips the market firmly in favour of two powerful companies – Thai Beverage, which produces Chang beer, and Boon Rawd Brewery, which produces Singha and Leo.
Continue reading...Endangered sharks found in cat and dog food, DNA study shows
Description of ingredient as ‘ocean fish’ means owners are unwittingly giving their pets vulnerable species for dinner
Pet food containing endangered sharks is being fed to cats and dogs by unwitting owners, a study has revealed.
Scientists found that several brands contained endangered species but listed only vague ingredients such as “ocean fish”, meaning that consumers are often oblivious.
Continue reading...Demoralised Russian soldiers tell of anger at being ‘duped’ into war
Videos of PoWs used for Ukraine propaganda, but there is an authentic sense of regret among Russian servicemen
Five Russian soldiers sit in a brick building. They are blindfolded: the latest prisoners to be captured inside Ukraine. A Ukrainian voice interrogates them. “Speak,” he says to the group’s Russian officer. What message would he like to send to his soldiers and to Russians back at home?
“Frankly speaking, they tricked us,” the officer replies, referring to his military superiors sitting in Moscow. “Everything we were told was a fake. I would tell my guys to leave Ukrainian territory. We’ve got families and children. I think 90% of us would agree to go home.”
Continue reading...Hong Kong shops ration food and drugs to curb panic buying amid Covid lockdown fears
Government is planning to test entire population for virus but insists it will not impose ‘complete lockdown’
Soaring Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong have led to court services being suspended for a month as the two largest consumer retail chains ration certain items.
The Asian financial hub has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day in what the authorities called a “fifth wave”, overwhelming hospitals and shattering the city’s zero-Covid strategy.
Continue reading...BBC website ‘blocked’ in Russia as shortwave radio brought back to cover Ukraine war
Website reportedly available at only 17% of normal levels in Russia, hours after broadcaster revives radio technology to reach Ukraine and parts of Russia
Access to BBC websites has been restricted in Russia, hours after the corporation brought back its shortwave radio service in Ukraine and Russia to ensure civilians in both countries can access news during the invasion.
State communications watchdog Roskomnadzor restricted access to BBC Russia’s online presence, as well as Radio Liberty and the Meduza media outlet, the state-owned Russian RIA news agency reported on Friday.
Continue reading...NZ’s parliament protests were frightening but they don’t mean the country is splintering | Max Rashbrooke
Disagreement is a sign of healthy democratic debate not of dysfunction – and hard-core conspiracists remain marginal
The occupation of New Zealand’s parliament was fractured from the outset: fascists vied for control with controversial pastors, conspiracy theorists and more moderate anti-mandate protesters. And even as the occupation violently collapsed with rioters lobbing cobblestones at police, the divisions remained. Some shouted “burn it down”, while others tried to restrain them.
As New Zealand reacts to some of its darkest days in recent memory, these internal rivalries are, obscurely, a hopeful sign – a reminder there was far more division inside the protest than between the protesters and the wider nation.
Continue reading...Ukraine war: drone footage shows how explosions destroyed town of Borodyanka – video
Drone footage filmed months apart shows the scale of destruction at Borodyanka, a small town 60km north-west of Kyiv.
The video on the left was filmed in August 2021, while the video on the right – shot 3 March 2022 – shows smoke rising from a residential building destroyed by the shelling as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues
Continue reading...Sumy: more than 500 international students trapped in Ukrainian town battered by shelling
Students, mostly Nigerian, stranded in town 40km from the northeast border which has become a war zone
More than 500 international students are trapped in Sumy, a town 40km from Ukraine’s northeast border which has been battered by days of shelling by Russian forces.
Most of the students are Nigerian, while others are from Ghana, Ethiopia, Angola, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ireland, India, Lebanon and Turkey. They have all suddenly found themselves stranded in a war zone.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron declares re-election bid: ‘I am seeking your trust again’
President will stand again in April and vows to ‘explain our project with clarity and commitment’
Emmanuel Macron has announced he is standing for re-election, in a letter published in a number of local newspapers in France.
The president, like all potential candidates, had until 6pm local time to announce he would run in the April election and to present the country’s constitutional court with 500 signatures from MPs and other elected officials supporting his bid.
Continue reading...‘We can influence morale’: Polish ambassador last to remain in Kyiv
As his EU counterparts leave for western city of Lviv and home, Bartosz Cichocki wants to keep up spirits in capital
Some members of Kyiv’s diplomatic corps have moved to the western city of Lviv, others have crossed the border and are working from neighbouring countries, while most havebeen evacuated back home.
But inside the Polish embassy compound in the centre of an eerily quiet Kyiv, the ambassador Bartosz Cichocki is still at work.
Continue reading...‘Trojan horse’: Palau’s bid to become global crypto hub could turn it into scammers paradise, critics warn
Experts say Palau should be wary of entering into a programme that could leave it open to exploitation and harm its image
Palau’s new digital residency programme could leave it open to cryptoscammers and corruption, critics have warned, arguing that not enough due diligence has been done on the scheme.
The programme allows foreigners to buy an e-residency card which in turn allows them to start companies and sign documents, among other things. Most importantly, when the relevant legislation is passed, it will allow them to trade in cryptocurrencies, useful for residents whose countries, like China, do not allow it.
Continue reading...Kremlin denies planning to institute martial law in Russia
Thousands of Russians flee country as rumours spread government is preparing clampdown
The Kremlin has said it is not planning to institute martial law in Russia as rumours have spread that the government is preparing for a clampdown tied to its invasion of Ukraine.
Thousands of Russians have begun fleeing the country amid unsourced reports that the borders could close as soon as this weekend after an extraordinary session of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, scheduled for Friday.
Continue reading...Concern mounting over huge Russian military convoy outside Kyiv
Speculation that massive column of Russian vehicles and troops may be regrouping for assault on capital
Concern is mounting over the movements of a huge column of Russian military vehicles outside Kyiv, amid a lack of fresh information about its position and the threat it poses.
While a US defence official suggested it appeared to have “stalled”, there was also speculation that an estimated 15,000 troops attached to it may be regrouping, and potentially waiting for logistical supplies before an assault on Kyiv.
Continue reading...