Category Archives: World News

Ukraine arrests Chinese father and son on suspicion of spying

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Pair accused of spying on Neptune missile programme, which is seen as critical to defence against Russia

Ukraine says it has arrested a Chinese father and son on suspicion of spying on its Neptune anti-ship missile programme, a key part of Kyiv’s growing domestic arms industry that is critical to its defence against Russian forces.

The announcement by Ukraine’s security service (SBU) follows assertions by Kyiv in recent months that Beijing, which has sought to project an image of neutrality, is helping the Kremlin’s war effort.

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Zelenskyy urges west to hit Russia with sanctions after huge attack on Kyiv

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Ukrainian president wants allies to speed up action against Putin after two killed in second night of major strikes

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukraine’s allies to speed up imposing new sanctions on Russia after another huge wave of strikes on his country’s capital killed two people and left more wounded.

“Sanctions must be imposed faster, and pressure on Russia must be strong enough that they truly feel the consequences of their terror,” the Ukrainian president said on social media. Ukraine’s air defence force said Moscow sent 400 drones and 18 missiles across the country in the early hours.

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Lobbyists linked to Donald Trump paid millions by world’s poorest countries

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Somalia, DR Congo and Yemen among states forced to sign deals and barter their minerals for aid or military support

Some of the world’s poorest countries have started paying millions to lobbyists linked to Donald Trump to try to offset US cuts to foreign aid, an investigation reveals.

Somalia, Haiti and Yemen are among 11 countries to sign significant lobbying deals with figures tied directly to the US president after he slashed US foreign humanitarian assistance.

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‘One too many’: rapper’s arrest sparks protests against Togo’s ruling dynasty

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At least 10 people killed and 100 young people arrested since protests began in west African country in June

On the night last month that he and 34 other young people were arrested in the Togolese capital, Lomé, for coordinating an anti-government demonstration, Bertin Bandiangou said gendarmes beat him with ropes and slapped him. The next morning he was tortured while a commanding officer filmed proceedings.

He was lucky to get out alive: at least 10 people have been killed by security officials since protests began in June calling for the resignation of the small west African country’s president, Faure Gnassingbé.

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Ursula von der Leyen faces rare censure vote in European parliament

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European Commission president expected to survive but ballot likely to reveal discontent about EU’s rightward drift

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is preparing to face a rare vote of censure in the European parliament that is likely to reveal discontent about the rightward drift of EU policies.

Von der Leyen is expected to comfortably survive a vote on Thursday on the censure motion, which in theory could trigger the downfall of her commission. While her survival is considered a certainty, the debate has lifted the lid on simmering discontent among centrist, centre-left and green MEPs who voted her back into office just under one year ago, after elections that gave rightwing nationalists their best-ever results.

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Trump announces 50% tariff on Brazil, citing a ‘witch-hunt’ against Bolsonaro

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Latest threats heighten fears that the president’s erratic trade strategy risks exacerbating inflation across the US

Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that his administration will hit Brazil with a 50% tariff on products sent to the US, tying the move to what he called the “witch-hunt” trial against its former president, Jair Bolsonaro.

Posting letters on Truth Social, the US president had earlier in the day targeted seven other countries – the Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Sri Lanka – for stiff US tariffs on foreign exports starting on 1 August.

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Ex-South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol returned to prison over martial law bid

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Politician spent 52 days in jail after being charged with insurrection but was released four months ago

Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol returned to jail on Thursday after a court approved a warrant sought by prosecutors investigating his attempt to impose martial law last year.

The Seoul central district court’s decision bolstered the special counsel investigation into allegations that Yoon’s move in December represented obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

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‘Shoot them in the leg’: Kenyan president’s anti-protest rhetoric hardens as death toll rises

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William Ruto accuses protesters of terrorism and violence two days after 31 people killed in anti-government demonstrations

Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has ordered police to shoot protesters targeting businesses in the legs, in a sharp intensification of his rhetoric days after 31 people were killed in nationwide anti-government demonstrations.

“They shouldn’t kill them but they should shoot their legs so they break and they can go to hospital on their way to court,” Ruto said in the capital, Nairobi.

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Canadian couple’s message in a bottle found 13 years later in Irish bay

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Facebook post helps track down Anita and Brad, who had been dating for a year at time of message and wed in 2016

In September 2012, a young couple capped a romantic date in Newfoundland, on Canada’s eastern tip, by putting a message in a bottle and dropping it into the Atlantic.

“Anita and Brad’s day trip to Bell Island. Today, we enjoyed dinner, this bottle of wine and each other, at the edge of the island,” it said. It asked whomever might find the message to “please call us”, followed by a scribbled number.

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Seven crew rescued from cargo ship that sank in Red Sea after Houthi attack

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Search goes on for 14 people missing from Eternity C after assault in which at least four were killed

Seven crew members of a cargo ship that sank in the Red Sea after an attack by Houthi forces have been rescued but at least four were killed and 14 others are still missing.

The seven seafarers from the cargo ship Eternity C spent more than 24 hours in the water before being rescued, according to security firms involved in the operation. Rescuers are still searching for missing crew members.

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Gaza aid workers overwhelmed by ‘mass casualty incidents’ at food distribution sites

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Doctors say hundreds of people have been wounded by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach convoys

Medical officials, humanitarian workers and doctors in Gaza say they have been overwhelmed by almost daily “mass casualty incidents” as they struggle to deal with those wounded by Israeli fire on Palestinians seeking aid.

Doctors say many of the people they are treating describe being shot as they try to reach distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive US- and Israel-backed organisation that began handing out food in late May.

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Accelerated glacial melt and monsoon rains trigger deadly floods in Pakistan

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Record temperatures and seasonal downpours raise fears of a repeat of the devastating flooding in 2022

Glaciers across northern Pakistan have been melting at an accelerated pace as a result of record-breaking summer temperatures, leading to deadly flash flooding and landslides.

The floods and heavy monsoon rains have caused devastation across the country this summer, killing at least 72 people and injuring more than 130 since the rains began in late June.

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Children among 20 people reported killed overnight by Israeli strikes on Gaza – as it happened

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Latest deaths come as humanitarian workers and doctors in Gaza say they have been overwhelmed by almost daily ‘mass casualty incidents’

Here are some of the latest images coming through from Gaza:

On Tuesday, the European Union force patrolling the Red Sea told AFP that three people were killed and at least two injured - including a Russian electrician who lost a leg - in the attack on the Eternity C.

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South Sudan says eight deportees from the US are under government care

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Deportees include two people from Myanmar, two from Cuba, and one each from Vietnam, Laos and Mexico

War-torn South Sudan has said it is holding a group of eight men controversially deported from the United States.

Only one of them is from South Sudan. The rest comprise two people from Myanmar, two from Cuba, and one each from Vietnam, Laos and Mexico.

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Police raid headquarters of French far-right National Rally party

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Investigation into alleged illegal campaign financing denounced by party’s leader, Jordan Bardella, as ‘harassment campaign’

Police have raided the headquarters of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) and seized documents as part of an investigation into alleged illegal campaign financing that was denounced by the party’s leader, Jordan Bardella, as “a harassment campaign”.

The raid came a day after EU financial prosecutors in Brussels said they had launched a separate investigation into the alleged misuse of €4.3m by the former far-right Identity & Democracy (ID) group in the European parliament, which included the RN.

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Has the Trump-Putin bromance finally run its course?

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US president appears to have run out of patience with his Russian counterpart – but how that transmits into practical support for Kyiv remains to be seen

“I’m not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now,” Trump said, expressing his frustration with the Russian leader over the war in Ukraine. “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin … He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

It may not have been Churchillian in oratorical flourish, and with Trump everything is capable of being reversed in hours, but possibly, just possibly, the rupture between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump has happened. If so it is a transformatory moment, and a vindication for both Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he arrives in Rome for the annual Ukraine reconstruction conference and for those others, notably the British and the French governments, who have patiently helped the scales to fall from Trump’s eyes about Putin’s true intentions. At long last and after many false starts, the US president seems to have accepted he is unpersuadable on ending the war.

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EU urged to build stockpiles to prepare for pandemic, natural disaster or invasion

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European Commission unveils strategy for storing food, medicine, generators and raw materials

The EU should develop stockpiles of food, medicine, generators and raw materials to be better prepared for a military invasion, pandemic or natural disaster, the European Commission has said.

Outlining its first-ever strategy on stockpiling, the EU executive said on Wednesday member states should also consider emergency supplies of water purification products, equipment to repair undersea cables, drones and mobile bridges for use in conflicts.

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French warned of high-risk summer for wildfires as Marseille blaze contained

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Mayor urges people to exercise utmost caution as weather service says situation around Mediterranean is critical

More than 15,000 residents of Marseille confined to their homes have been allowed out after a wildfire on the outskirts of France’s second city was brought under control, but officials have warned the country faces an exceptionally high-risk summer.

Fanned by gale-force winds and kindled by parched vegetation, several fires have burned swathes of southern France in recent days, including Tuesday’s just north of the port city. The weather service has said the weeks ahead could be critical.

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How do criminal courts work without juries around the world?

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US defendants can waive right to jury trial and in Germany jury trials were abolished in 1924

One of the most significant recommendations in a review of the criminal courts in England and Wales, expected to be published this week, is likely to be the scrapping of jury trials for certain offences.

The idea in Sir Brian Leveson’s independent inquiry is that it will help reduce the record backlog in the courts. But for many the right to a jury trial, except for the most minor offences, is synonymous with the right to a fair trial and watering it down would be hugely controversial.

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Firefighters from Mexico aid Texas flood search and rescue: ‘There are no borders’

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Team of firefighters and first responders volunteer along Guadalupe River after mass flooding in show of solidarity

A contingent of firefighters and first responders from Mexico arrived in Texas over the weekend to aid in search and rescue efforts following the devastating flooding of the Guadalupe River in a show of solidarity with their northern neighbors.

“When it comes to firefighters, there’s no borders,” Ismael Aldaba, founder of Fundación 911, in Acuña, Mexico, told CNN on Tuesday. “There’s nothing that’ll avoid us from helping another firefighter, another family. It doesn’t matter where we’re at in the world. That’s the whole point of our discipline and what we do.”

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