Fire broke out during onboard cooking before wooden vessel capsized with 500 passengers aboard
The death toll from a boat fire and capsizing in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this week has risen to 148 with more than 100 people still missing, officials said on Friday.
About 500 passengers were on board the wooden boat when it capsized on Tuesday after catching fire on the Congo River in the country’s north-west.
Continue reading...Death toll reportedly hits 80 with 150 wounded in deadliest attack since Washington launched its campaign
US military strikes on Yemen’s Ras Isa fuel port have killed at least 80 people including civilians and rescue workers, according to the Houthi-run health ministry, in the deadliest attack since Washington launched its campaign against the Iran-backed militants.
The rebels’ Al-Masirah TV, citing local officials, said the toll from the strike had “risen to 80 dead and 150 wounded”.
Continue reading...Trump said he could stop war in 24 hours, but team appears daunted by negotiation with ‘a lot of detail attached to it’
One key to a successful negotiation is always being willing to walk away from the table. But it isn’t clear whether the Trump administration has threatened to give up on a Russia-Ukraine peace deal as a negotiating tactic or simply because it lacks the concentration for a complicated negotiation – a shortcoming that has dogged the administration’s foreign policy through its first three months in office.
Standing on a tarmac in Paris, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a threat that the US could simply “move on” from mediating the biggest military conflict in Europe since the second world war. That would be the latest about-face for an administration that has already taken a back seat on negotiating a peace in Gaza and retreated on implementing worldwide tariffs that shook financial markets around the globe earlier this month.
Continue reading...Centre-left parties slam ‘racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic’ faked images posted on social media by League party
Opposition parties in Italy have complained to the communications watchdog about a series of AI-generated images published on social media by deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini’s far-right party, calling them “racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic”, the Guardian has learned.
The centre-left Democratic party (PD), with the Greens and Left Alliance, filed a complaint on Thursday with Agcom, the Italian communications regulatory authority, alleging the fake images used by the League contained “almost all categories of hate speech”.
Continue reading...Enthusiasts gathering on Good Friday – renamed Carfreitag – face curbs on unauthorised tuning, illegal races and pollution
Police in Germany have announced a crackdown on illegal racing and the unauthorised modification of cars as members of the so-called tuning scene meet across the country for the start of their annual season.
The Good Friday holiday marking Christ’s death on the cross, called Karfreitag in German – from the Old High German word kara, meaning sorrow – is otherwise known by the extreme car enthusiasts as Carfreitag (car Friday) for its unofficial gathering of the “tuners” and “car posers”.
Continue reading...Beijing rejects Ukrainian president’s accusation as ‘groundless’ and says it is committed to ending the conflict
China’s foreign ministry has dismissed as “groundless” the accusation by Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the country had been supplying weapons to Russia.
The comments, made at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday, came a day after the Ukrainian president said China was supplying weapons to Russia, including gunpowder and artillery, and that Chinese representatives were involved in weapons production on Russian territory.
Continue reading...Report finds over a quarter of Canadians exposed to ‘more sophisticated and more politically polarizing’ fake content
More than a quarter of Canadians have been exposed to fake political content on social media that is “more sophisticated and more politically polarizing” as the country prepares to vote in a federal election, researchers have found, warning that platforms must increase protections amid a “dramatic acceleration” of online disinformation in the final weeks of the campaign.
In a new report released on Friday, Canada’s Media Ecosystem Observatory found a growing number of Facebook ads impersonating legitimate news sources were instead promoting fraudulent investment schemes, often involving cryptocurrency.
Continue reading...Visit by Maryland’s Chris Van Hollen comes as a federal appeals court rules against the Trump’s administration’s efforts to block return to the US
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news over the next few hours.
We start with news that Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen met in El Salvador with Kilmar Ábrego García, a man who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.
James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee, and Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican leadership, have launched an investigation into Harvard University, accusing the university of a “lack of compliance with civil rights laws”.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX and two partners have emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part of Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense shield.
The supreme court said it will hear arguments next month over Donald Trump’s bid to restrict automatic birthright citizenship.
In their unanimous opinion issued today, a US appeals court warned the Trump administration that battles against the judiciary could undermine public confidence.
After weeks of strong rhetoric, the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he thought trade deals could be finished in the “next three or four weeks”.
Trump on Thursday extended a government-wide federal hiring freeze that was set to expire this weekend.
The Washington DC headquarters for the Department of Housing and Urban Development may soon be up for sale.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read on our report here
The Kremlin said on Friday that some progress had already been made in talks about a possible peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine but that contacts were rather complicated with the United States.
“Contacts are quite complicated, because, naturally, the topic is not an easy one,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Russia is committed to resolving this conflict, ensuring its own interests, and is open to dialogue. We continue to do this.”
Continue reading...Secretary of state threatens to pull plug ‘within days’, as Kyiv says it has signed mineral deal memorandum
The US will abandon its efforts “within days” to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine unless there are clear signs a settlement can be reached, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said, as Kyiv says it has signed a memorandum with the US over a controversial minerals deal.
Speaking in Paris on Friday after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said Donald Trump was still interested in a deal. But he added that the US president had many other priorities around the world and was willing to move on unless there were signs of progress.
Continue reading...Margaret Elaine Winn, 58, and Graeme Derek Winn, 65, died with Israeli woman and Italian driver of cable car
Two British tourists were among four people who died when a cable car crashed to the ground near Naples in southern Italy.
Prosecutors in Torre Annunziata have opened an investigation into possible manslaughter charges after the crash on Thursday at Monte Faito, a peak about 28 miles (45km) south-east of Naples.
Continue reading...Man behind puzzle and pigeon bags, who transformed Loewe, brings buzz to French house as creative director
Jonathan Anderson, the designer who brought success, cool and viral fame to the Spanish label Loewe during his 11-year reign, has been announced as the new creative director of Christian Dior’s menswear collection. Taking over from Kim Jones, Anderson’s first show for the brand will take place in Paris in June.
While this is confirmation of news that fashion insiders were long aware of, it will definitely bring new buzz to Christian Dior. Anderson, now 40, has become something of a unicorn in the industry, a designer with boundless energy and ideas who is able to create distinctive and original designs but also sell clothes.
Continue reading...Study shows women today are happier being women – but getting up to go to work remains as punishing as ever
The mundane tasks of everyday life, such as homework after school and household chores at the weekend, may not have changed in the past 80 years, but societal attitudes towards them could not be more different.
A study by the Policy Institute at King’s College London (KCL), comparing public attitudes now and in the 1930s and 40s, reveals how significantly views on everyday life in Britain have shifted over the decades.
Continue reading...Chris Van Hollen posts photo on X but does not provide update on status of man wrongly deported from US
The Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen met in El Salvador with Kilmar Ábrego García, a man who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.
Van Hollen posted a photo of the meeting on X, saying he also called Ábrego García’s wife “to pass along his message of love”.
Continue reading...Suspect, charged with four federal counts, faces separate state charges over death of Brian Thompson in Manhattan
Luigi Mangione was indicted on Thursday on a federal murder charge in the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel last year, a necessary step for prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
The indictment returned by a grand jury in Manhattan federal court also charges Mangione with two counts of stalking and a firearms count.
Continue reading...US president and first lady received invitation in February from King Charles for unprecedented repeat trip
Donald Trump has said he is expecting to travel to the UK in September for his second state visit.
King Charles is preparing to host the US president and first lady as the UK government tries to bolster transatlantic ties after Trump imposed a series of tariffs on trading partners.
Continue reading...Senior diplomats set to meet again in London next week after ‘very productive’ Paris summit to revive stalled efforts
Senior US, European and Ukrainian diplomats will meet again in London next week, the Élysée Palace has said, after what a French official described as an “excellent” day of talks in Paris aimed at reviving stalled ceasefire efforts.
“We have started a positive process in which Europeans are a part,” the spokesperson said after the meetings attended by top British, French, German and Ukrainian officials as well as the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Continue reading...Trump praises Italian PM and accepts invitation that could present chance for him to meet other European leaders
Giorgia Meloni said Donald Trump had accepted her invitation for an official trip to Rome, as the pair met in Washington in an attempt by the Italian prime minister to bridge the gap between the EU and US amid trade tariff tensions.
Meloni said Trump’s trip could happen “in the near future” and could present an opportunity for him to meet other European leaders.
Continue reading...Lawyer says officials were looking for someone else while taking Juan Francisco Mendez in Massachusetts on Monday
A Massachusetts family is demanding answers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), complaining its agents smashed a car window with a large hammer and detained a man whom they say had applied for asylum.
A lawyer for the family also claims agents were not looking for the man in the car, Juan Francisco Mendez, when they grabbed him on Monday in New Bedford while he was driving to a dental appointment. He is now believed to have been taken into Ice detention.
Continue reading...One person seriously injured after accident at Monte Faito near Naples
Four people have died and one is seriously injured after a cable car crashed to the ground near Naples in southern Italy on Thursday.
A cable broke on the link taking tourists from the town of Castellammare di Stabia, on the Gulf of Naples, to Monte Faito, about three kilometres(1.8 miles) away.
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