Category Archives: World News

Speculation grows that Maxwell may try to cut a deal for reduced sentence

Posted on by

Experts say any deal depends on whether US government believes it is worth investigating network that may have been involved

Now that the British former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted in her sex-trafficking trial, speculation is growing that she may try to cut a deal and become a government witness in any broader investigation into the elite social circle of her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell would be aiming for a reduced sentence by naming powerful names when it comes to others who may be involved in Epstein’s crimes.

Continue reading...

Guardian readers nominate their person of the year

Posted on by

From the frontline of Covid to inspirational sports personalities, our worldwide audience name their choices

Guardian readers were asked to offer suggestions of who they would choose as their person of the year. Dozens of names were put forward – from scientists to sports personalities, from healthcare workers to climate activists.

And in a sign of the ongoing debate overgender issues, many readers also nominated the author JK Rowling, and online content creator Ranboo.

Continue reading...

Germans flock to Poland to buy fireworks in defiance of ban

Posted on by

Firework sales prohibited in Germany for second year in a row owing to Covid, resulting in growing stockpile

Germans seeking to defy a government ban on the domestic selling of fireworks before new year celebrations are heading in their droves across the border to Polish shops and factories.

A ban was announced this month for a second year in a row in an attempt to prevent large gatherings during the pandemic and to ease the burden on hospitals, which regularly have to treat serious injuries such as burns and lacerated limbs resulting from pyrotechnic accidents.

Continue reading...

Ex-Afghan president gives first interview since fleeing Kabul – video

Posted on by

The former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani gave his first interview since fleeing Kabul when it fell to the Taliban in August. Ghani told the BBC he was pressured into fleeing Kabul by helicopter by his 'terrified' national security adviser and the commander of the collapsing presidential security detail.

'They said the PPS [presidential protection service] has collapsed, [and] if I take a stand they will all be killed,' Ghani said. 'He did not give me more than two minutes'

Continue reading...

Spain’s public sector trailblazers seek to lead way on menstrual leave

Posted on by

Handful of local administrations are among the first in west to offer arrangement to their employees

A handful of local administrations in Spain have become among the first in western Europe to offer menstrual leave to their employees, in an attempt to strike a better balance between workplace demands and period pains.

This year the Catalan city of Girona became the first in the country to consider flexible working arrangements for any employee experiencing discomfort due to periods. In June it announced a deal with its more than 1,300 municipal employees to allow women, trans men and non-binary individuals to take up to eight hours menstrual leave a month, with the caveat that any time used must be recovered within a span of three months.

Continue reading...

Ashraf Ghani blames international allies over Afghanistan’s fall to Taliban

Posted on by

In first interview since fleeing Kabul in August, former president says US ‘erased’ Afghans in years of peace talks with militants

The former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani has broken his silence with his first interview since fleeing Kabul four months ago, in effect blaming the international community and in particular the Americans for the fall of the republic.

Ghani told the BBC he was rushed into fleeing Kabul on a helicopter by his “terrified” national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, and the commander of the collapsing presidential security detail.

Continue reading...

‘It was civil war’: photographing Mexico’s women’s rights protests

Posted on by

Mahé Elipe captures the visceral anger as International Women’s Day protests turned into a violent clash with police

On 8 March 2021, women across the world took part in protests to mark International Women’s Day. In Mexico, there is an added poignancy to the annual event, as at least 10 women are murdered in the country each day; in 2021 the date was was marred by additional violence.

In the runup to the day fences were erected around the national palace in Mexico City’s main square, where thousands of women were due to gather.

Continue reading...

How Australia went from Covid-zero to Covid-central in just a few months

Posted on by

Arrival of Omicron variant coupled with loosening of restrictions has seen ‘fortress Australia’ policy abandoned

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began to emerge across the globe almost two years ago, Australia has often appeared to be living in a parallel reality.

In November last year, when more than 50,000 people had already died in the UK and daily case numbers were hovering at about 33,000 during a suffocating lockdown, the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, was boasting of packed crowds at rugby games.

Continue reading...

Assunta Maresca, first female boss in Camorra mafia, dies aged 86

Posted on by

Maresca, known as Pupetta, or ‘Little Doll’, found fame when she shot dead her husband’s killer in Naples at the age of 18

A former beauty queen who shot to fame when she killed her husband’s killer in Naples at the age of 18 and went on to become the first female boss in Italy’s powerful Camorra mafia clan has died aged 86.

Assunta Maresca, better known as Pupetta, or “Little Doll”, was the daughter of a notorious black marketeer. In the mid-1950s, 18 years old and six months pregnant, she tracked down Antonio Esposito, the Camorra boss who had ordered the killing of her husband, and shot him dead in broad daylight on a street in Naples.

Continue reading...

Trapped at Europe’s door: inside Belarus’s makeshift asylum dormitory

Posted on by

About 1,000 people, mostly Kurds, are waiting at a converted customs centre in Bruzgi for the chance to cross into EU

The giant warehouse towers over the Belarus countryside, less than a mile from the Polish border. In this 10,000 sq metre space patrolled by dozens of armed soldiers, 1,000 asylum seekers are crammed among countless industrial shelving units, held up on their way to Europe in the midst of a frigid winter.

“We’re trapped in this building,” says Alima Skandar, 40. “We don’t want to go back to Iraq and we can’t cross the border. Please, help us.”

Continue reading...

‘We’ll get it done. Come hell, high water or Covid’: Can 2022 be a super year for nature?

Posted on by

Biodiversity talks in Kunming are likely to be delayed again, but the world urgently needs a Paris-style agreement for nature

It was supposed to be a “super year for nature”: 2020 was going to be “a major opportunity to bring nature back from the brink”. But then the coronavirus pandemic set in and long-held plans to tackle the environmental crisis, kickstarted at Davos in January, where the financial elite underscored the risks of global heating and biodiversity loss to human civilisation, never happened. The biggest biodiversity summit in a decade, Cop15 in Kunming, China, where world leaders were expected to strike a deal to halt and reverse the destruction of ecosystems by reaching a Paris-style agreement for nature was postponed until 2021. The Cop26 climate summit was also postponed for a year.

As we enter 2022, there has still not been a super year for nature. Substantive negotiations for the biodiversity Cop15 meeting in China, the little sister to the climate convention, are likely to be delayed a fourth time as a result of the Omicron variant. Preparatory talks planned for January 2022 in Geneva have been pushed back – again – until March in a process that is feeling increasingly cursed, despite the best efforts of organisers.

Continue reading...

Jamal Khashoggi killers living in luxury villas in Riyadh, say witnesses

Posted on by

Exclusive: Reports of hit squad members living freely casts further doubt on Saudi claims that justice has been served

At least three members of a Saudi hit squad convicted by the kingdom of murdering Jamal Khashoggi are living and working “in seven-star accommodation” inside a government-run security compound in Riyadh, according to a source connected to senior members of Saudi intelligence.

The assassins are believed to be staying in villas and buildings run by Saudi Arabia’s State Security agency – far from the walls of its infamous prisons. The source has spoken to two witnesses who claim to have seen the men. They said family members frequently visit the men, who are able to use a gym and workspaces on the site.

Continue reading...

Citroën pulls Egypt ad accused of promoting harassment of women

Posted on by

Egyptian singer Amr Diab uses camera installed in car to take photo of woman without consent

The French car manufacturer Citroën has withdrawn an advertisement featuring the Egyptian singer Amr Diab after it sparked widespread accusations of promoting the harassment of women.

In the ad posted on Egyptian social media in early December, the 60-year-old pop star uses a camera installed in the car’s rearview mirror to secretly take a picture of a woman crossing in front of the vehicle.

Continue reading...

Covid live: France reports over 200,000 cases for second day in a row; eastern Europe’s death toll reaches 1 million

Posted on by

French officials report over 206,000 cases; number of people to die from Covid in eastern Europe has reached 1 million people

Here’s a reminder of the news overnight that NHS England is looking to set up new “pop-up” Covid facilities. My colleagues Rowena Mason and Aubrey Allegretti report:

NHS England confirmed that it was creating new small-scale “Nightingale” facilities with up to 100 beds each at eight hospitals across the country. The health service said it had asked trusts to identify empty spaces to accommodate beds in places such as gyms or teaching areas. NHS managers are aiming to create up to 4,000 beds as surge capacity if needed, with work on the first tranche, in temporary structures, starting this week.

Continue reading...

South Korea presidential contender vows to seek nuclear-powered submarines, months after Australia’s Aukus deal

Posted on by

Lee Jae-myung aims to counter North Korea threats and pledges to restart stalled talks between Pyongyang and Washington

South Korea’s ruling party presidential candidate said he will seek US support to build nuclear-powered submarines to better counter threats from North Korea and proactively seek to reopen stalled denuclearisation talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

In an interview with Reuters and two other media outlets, Lee Jae-myung also pledged to put aside “strategic ambiguity” in the face of intensifying Sino-US rivalry, vowing pragmatic diplomacy would avoid South Korea being forced to choose between the two countries.

Continue reading...

‘On the brink’: drought and politics leave Afghans fighting famine

Posted on by

Aid collapse after Taliban took control means just 2% of people have enough to eat, UN says

In his seven decades, Mehrajuddin has been a police commander, a fighter for the mujahideen, a district governor and a prosecutor, and even briefly worked in Europe. Until this year, he has never struggled to feed his family.

Now they have just one meal a day, hard discs of stale bread soaked in water until they soften to mush. “All the family are starving,” he says bluntly as he waits at a food distribution centre in Kabul for a handout of lentils, rice, flour and oil. “I even worry about dying, because if it happens tomorrow, how will my family pay for my funeral?”

Continue reading...

Hong Kong court denies bail to ex-editors after raid on news outlet

Posted on by

It comes as US secretary of state calls for release of Stand News editors, saying ‘journalism is not sedition’

A Hong Kong court has denied bail to two former senior editors charged with conspiring to publish seditious materials, a day after police raided Stand News, a pro-democracy media outlet, prompting its closure.

About 200 officers raided the office of the online publication on Wednesday, froze its assets and arrested seven current and former senior editors and former board members, in the latest crackdown on the city’s press.

Continue reading...

Britons with homes in EU told they can’t drive through France to get there

Posted on by

Eurotunnel operator issues warning to UK nationals after update to Covid travel rules by French government

Eurotunnel is warning British citizens who live in the EU that they cannot travel through France by car from the UK due to new coronavirus restrictions imposed by the French government.

Getlink, the operator of the Channel rail link, issued an urgent warning on its website and Twitter page on Wednesday evening that appeared to confirm that the French government had changed its travel rules.

Continue reading...

Prince Andrew emerges with barely a mention in Ghislaine Maxwell trial

Posted on by

Analysis: there was no cross-examination of the prince’s friend and his accuser was not called to give evidence

For the Duke of York, the fact he was barely mentioned in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial will have been an undoubted relief. With Maxwell declining the stand, no opening of her “little black book” of society contacts and, crucially, no sign of his accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Prince Andrew was a mere footnote in the New York proceedings.

Maxwell opted not to give evidence before being found guilty on five of six charges, saying there was “no need” because prosecutors had failed to prove their case, so the subject of Andrew was not raised with her via cross-examination.

Continue reading...