Attempts to bring down the price of the Japanese staple have had little effect amid a cost-of-living crisis
Japan’s government is battling record-low approval ratings as consumers voice anger at soaring rice prices just weeks before key national elections.
Attempts to bring down the price of the Japanese staple have had little effect, prompting calls for a reduction in the consumption (sales) tax to ease the cost-of-living crisis.
Continue reading...Campaigners say secretive ownership structures are becoming the ‘go-to vehicle for kleptocrats’
The owners of nearly a quarter of a million properties in England and Wales worth a combined £64bn are hidden behind opaque trusts, according to research that prompts concern that such structures are the “go-to vehicle for kleptocrats” stashing money in Britain.
The government introduced a register of property held through offshore vehicles in August 2022, revealing a string of unknown owners, including high-profile figures such as Lewis Hamilton and James Dyson, as well as sanctioned Russians, Gulf royals and the Chinese state.
Continue reading...Families of the ‘disappeared’ say kidnapped children may be living across Europe
Women whose relatives were murdered and disappeared under Argentina’s military dictatorship will meet EU officials in Brussels on Monday to seek support for expanded DNA testing to identify missing children.
A delegation from the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, a campaigning group, will denounce efforts by the far-right president, Javier Milei, to dismantle the search for missing persons. They will seek support for continuing their efforts to find the children of the disappeared who were illegally adopted, many of whom may be in Europe.
Continue reading...Fremont emergency crews search the Sandusky river near Miles Newton Bridge for at least one missing person
Two people were killed, police said, and at least one person was missing after pedestrians were struck by a train on Sunday evening in northern Ohio, authorities said.
The incident occurred at around 7pm in Fremont, near Lake Erie between Toledo and Cleveland, WTOL-TV reported.
Continue reading...Results show Bucharest mayor taking 54.2% of vote in presidential race, with far-right rival George Simion on 45.8%
The centrist mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, is set to win Romania’s pivotal presidential election with 99% of votes counted, according to official figures showing the pro-EU independent eight points clear of his far-right rival, George Simion.
The figures from Romania’s central election authority showed Dan, who had cast the second round vote as a battle between “a pro-western and an anti-western Romania”, on 54.2%, while Simion, a self-professed Trump admirer, had 45.8%.
Continue reading...Incumbent Democratic Alliance, led by caretaker prime minister Luís Montenegro, falls well short of majority
Portugal’s incumbent, centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) has won the country’s third snap general election in three years – but once again fallen well short of a majority – as the underperforming socialists were left vying for second place with the far-right Chega party, which took a record 22% of the vote.
By midnight on Sunday, with 99% of the votes counted, the AD – led by the prime minister, Luís Montenegro – had won 32.1% of the vote and taken 86 seats in Portugal’s 230-seat assembly, leaving it far shy of the 116 needed for a majority. The Socialist party (PS) had taken 23.4% of the vote t0 Chega’s 22.6%, and the two were tied on 58 seats each.
Continue reading...Israeli ground forces supported by air force in new offensive despite peace talks in Qatar
In an earlier post, we reported on the dire situation at the Indonesian hospital, which is reportedly under siege by Israeli forces.
Now Gaza’s health ministry has said that all public hospitals in the north of the territory were “out of service”.
Continue reading...Twenty-two crew members injured, 11 of them critically, with nine in stable condition, Mexican government says
Two sailors from the Mexican navy were killed and another 11 critically hurt when a sailing ship taking part in a promotional tour in New York City collided with the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said.
The crash happened on Saturday night when the Cuauhtémoc – an academy training vessel with 277 people on board who shares a name with the last Aztec ruler – lost power and struck the bridge. Eyewitness videos showed dozens of sailors in ceremonial uniforms spread across yardarms shortly before the collision, which snapped the Cuauhtémoc’s three masts.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskyy and JD Vance among 150,000 present as Leo says he wants Catholic church to be ‘leaven of unity’
Pope Leo XIV said he wanted the Catholic church to be a “small leaven of unity” in a time of “too much discord and too many wounds”, during his inaugural papal mass attended by world leaders including the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the US vice-president, JD Vance.
Calling for more love and unity, Leo said the church’s “true authority” was the charity of Christ. He said: “It is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda or by means of power. Instead, it is always and only a question of loving as Jesus did.”
Continue reading...Proposed rule change could pave way for president to fire economists whose figures prove politically inconvenient
Summarizing his befuddlement with numbers, Mark Twain observed that there were “lies, damned lies and statistics”.
The acerbic phrase later become so deeply embedded in popular consciousness that it once formed the title to an episode of The West Wing, NBC’s portrayal of a fictitious US president played by Martin Sheen.
Continue reading...Loss of Moody’s triple-A rating comes amid concerns about fiscal trajectory and widening budget deficit
US government debt may come under more pressure this week after the credit rating agency Moody’s stripped the US of its top-notch triple-A credit rating.
Moody’s dealt a blow to Washington last Friday, when it downgraded the US and warned about rising levels of government debt and a widening budget deficit. Moody’s cut its credit rating on the US by one notch to Aa1 from Aaa, becoming the last of the big three agencies to downgrade the US.
Continue reading...Netanyahu signals openness to deal but lays out conditions while territory’s hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ with casualties
Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have been continuing in Qatar for a second day as Israeli warplanes and artillery launched a fresh wave of strikes across Gaza, killing at least 130 people, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled on Sunday that Israel was open to a deal with Hamas that would include “ending the fighting” in Gaza, but laid out conditions that have been repeatedly refused by the militant Islamist organisation.
Continue reading...Thousands have been displaced and conservation work halted as series of killings jeopardises decades of work in Niassa, one of Africa’s biggest protected areas
One of Africa’s largest protected areas has been shaken by a series of attacks by Islamic State-linked extremists, which have left at least 10 people dead.
Conservationists in Niassa reserve, Mozambique, say decades of work to rebuild populations of lions, elephants and other keystone species are being jeopardised, as conservation operations grind to a halt.
Continue reading...In social media posts, president also slammed Walmart for price increases and spread anti-Clinton conspiracy theories
Donald Trump has said that he will speak to both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an effort to stop what he called the “bloodbath” war in Ukraine, in a barrage of new social media posts that included baseless conspiracy theories and a demand that Walmart not raise prices for customers because of tariffs he has imposed.
Trump, posting on his Truth Social account on Saturday, wrote that he will speak to Putin on Monday morning. “THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH’ THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE,” Trump wrote, in his customary all-capitalized prose.
Continue reading...Israel says intensified bombings are part of campaign expansion to ‘achieve all of the war goals in Gaza’
At least 140 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours, a deadly escalation as Israel seemed poised to launch a major offensive in the besieged territory.
Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 300 people since Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, one of the deadliest periods in the war since ceasefire talks broke down in March. The intensified bombing campaigns came as Israel’s total blockade on humanitarian aid has prompted fears of a famine in the Palestinian territory.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s president describes attack on minibus reportedly carrying mostly elderly women as ‘deliberate killing of civilians’
Nine people have been killed in a Russian drone attack on a minibus Ukraine says was evacuating civilians, prompting Volodymyr Zelenskyy to call for tougher sanctions against Moscow.
Local authorities said that most of those killed were elderly women being evacuated from Bilopillya, a town in the Sumy region that has come under repeated Russian attack.
Continue reading...White House remakes foreign policy under pay-for-access code that critics say could violate US constitution
Former White House lawyers, diplomatic protocol officers and foreign affairs experts have told the Guardian that Donald Trump’s receipt of overseas gifts and targeted investments are “unprecedented”, as the White House remakes US foreign policy under a pay-for-access code that eclipses past administrations with characteristic Trumpian excess.
The openness to foreign largesse was on full display this week as the US president was feted in the Gulf states during his first major diplomatic trip abroad this term, inking deals he claimed were worth trillions of dollars and pumping local leaders for investments as he says he remakes US foreign policy to prioritise “America first” – putting aside concerns of human rights or international law for the bottom line of American businesses and taxpayers.
Continue reading...The 33-year-old Melbourne man was convicted of being a ‘mercenary in an armed conflict’ by a Russian-controlled court
An Australian man captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine has been jailed for 13 years on the charge of being a “mercenary”, a move that has “appalled” the Australian government.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on Saturday that Russia was obliged to treat Oscar Jenkins humanely as he was “a full serving member of the regular armed forces of Ukraine” and therefore “a prisoner of war”.
Continue reading...Homeland security department reviewing ‘out-of-the-box’ pitch in which immigrants would compete for citizenship
The US Department of Homeland Security is reportedly considering an “out-of-the-box” pitch to participate in a television gameshow that would have immigrants compete to obtain US citizenship.
Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin described the pitch to the New York Times as a “celebration of being an American” and said the show would include challenges based on American traditions.
Continue reading...Mayor confirms deaths after roofs torn off and trees downed, while multiple states brace for high winds and heat
At least four people died and others were hurt after severe storms including a possible tornado swept through St Louis on Friday, as tens of millions of Americans in multiple states braced for possible damage from expected high winds and severe weather this weekend.
St Louis mayor Cara Spencer confirmed the deaths after storms tore roofs off some buildings, ripped away brick facades and downed trees and power lines as residents were urged to take cover.
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