Category Archives: World News

Show strength and offer a win: experts’ tips for Starmer on dealing with Trump

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Veterans of May and Johnson governments share lessons from their experiences with unpredictable US president

It was just a few mangled sentences spoken in the darkness on an airport tarmac. But Donald Trump’s comments this week – his most significant yet regarding the UK – were enough to give heart to people in Downing Street and the Foreign Office.

“UK is out of line. But I’m sure that one, I think that one, can be worked out,” Trump said to reporters travelling with him at the Joint Base Andrews air force facility in Maryland. “Prime Minister Starmer has been very nice. We’ve had a couple of meetings, we’ve had numerous phone calls, we’re getting along very well.”

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Church of England scandals stoke fears of mutiny as synod talks loom

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Demoralised clergy speak of church in freefall and crisis of trust in run-up to governing body meeting

Mutiny may be in the air when the Church of England’s normally staid ruling body, the General Synod, meets for a five-day session next week.

The gathering of the 500-member church parliament follows a series of tumultuous events that have resulted in the unprecedented resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury, repeated calls for the archbishop of York to stand down, and the sudden departure of the bishop of Liverpool. Behind all are cases of abuse, alleged abuse and the church’s failure to deal with abuse.

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‘Backsliding’: most countries to miss vital climate deadline as Cop30 nears

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Developing countries urge biggest polluters to act as Trump’s return to the White House heightens geopolitical turmoil

The vast majority of governments are likely to miss a looming deadline to file vital plans that will determine whether or not the world has a chance of avoiding the worst ravages of climate breakdown.

Despite the urgency of the crisis, the UN is relatively relaxed at the prospect of the missed date. Officials are urging countries instead to take time to work harder on their targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions and divest from fossil fuels.

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Rediscovered, a young English novelist’s warning of the Nazi threat

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Crooked Cross, Sally Carson’s ‘electrifying masterpiece’ from 1934, to be republished

Sally Carson was not an oracle or a prophet, just a young woman from Dorset, born in 1901. Yet she foresaw a dark and violent future for Europe and gave voice to those fears in a 1934 novel that is now being hailed as “an electrifying masterpiece”.

Carson’s book, Crooked Cross, predicted the scale of the Nazi threat and is to be republished for the first time this spring, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war. Controversial in its day, her novel had to walk a careful path to avoid the accusation that it was alarmist about the Fuhrer’s aims. A stage adaptation of her story was even censored, shorn of all its “Heil Hitlers”.

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Trudeau says Trump is serious about wanting to annex Canada

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Prime minister says US president covets northern neighbour’s vast resources as Canadians rally against threat

Donald Trump’s recent fixation on absorbing Canada is “a real thing”, Justin Trudeau has told business leaders, warning that the US president wants access to his northern neighbour’s vast supply of critical minerals.

The outgoing prime minister was in Toronto for a hastily called summit of business and labour leaders, seeking to coordinate a response Trump’s looming threat of a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports.

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Trump delays key piece of China tariff plan amid threats to other countries

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President halts plan to put tariffs on low-value packages but says he will impose duties on more countries next week

Donald Trump halted a key part of his tariff attack on China on Friday, as he threatened to impose new US duties on goods from many more countries next week.

Plans to ensure shipments from China to the US worth less than $800 still face tariffs – removing the longstanding duty-free status of low-cast packages – have been delayed to give more time to federal agencies to prepare for the change.

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Prince Andrew aide fights to prevent release of statement about ‘Chinese spy’

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Media group led by Guardian seeks release of document written by Dominic Hampshire in support of Yang Tengbo

Lawyers for an aide to Prince Andrew are fighting to prevent his statement in support of a man accused of being a Chinese spy, who briefly became a trusted business partner and associate of the prince, from being released to the press.

The Guardian is leading a group of media organisations seeking the release of a witness statement written by the prince’s fixer and close friend Dominic Hampshire, originally at the personal request of the businessman Yang Tengbo.

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Trump’s Gaza plan suggests his pro-settler advisers are in the ascendant

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Idea of US occupying Gaza and pushing out the Palestinians delights Israel’s pro-settler movement and its US allies

When Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington this week, his first stop was to meet evangelical Christian leaders, who have cheered on Israel in the war in Gaza in an alliance with the country’s pro-settler rightwing government. For both constituencies, Israel’s right to annex the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank is a matter of faith and, they hope, a matter of time.

Both constituencies cheered this week as Donald Trump announced his half-baked plan to “take over” Gaza, an idea he had only tinkered with before Tuesday evening, when it tumbled out to the obvious surprise of his closest aides.

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Nicolas Sarkozy fitted with electronic tag after losing corruption appeal

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Former French president was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 after he had left office

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was fitted with an electronic tag on Friday after losing his appeal against his conviction for corruption and influence peddling.

He will be required to remain at his Paris home between 8pm and 8am, but has been given a special dispensation to be outside until 9.30pm for three days a week when attending a separate trial on charges – that he denies – of accepting millions in illegal campaign funds from the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

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Israeli soldier sentenced to seven months for assaults on Gaza detainees

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Rights groups say punishment is insufficient after first conviction for abuse in a system where dozens have died

An Israeli soldier has been found guilty of severe assaults of Palestinian detainees from Gaza, the first conviction for abuse in a system where dozens of people have died in custody and whistleblowers say torture and violence is rife.

Israel Hajabi, 25, repeatedly attacked bound and blindfolded detainees with his fists, a baton and his assault rifle, a military court found, describing his actions as “serious and severe”. On one day alone, 5 June last year, at the Sde Teiman detention centre he beat two men 15 times.

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Sweden plans to tighten gun laws in wake of Örebro mass shooting

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‘We have to ensure that only the right people have guns in Sweden,’ says the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson

Sweden’s government has announced plans to strengthen its gun laws, including by restricting access to semi-automatic weapons, after the country’s worst mass shooting.

On Tuesday, a gunman killed 10 people at an education centre in Örebro, west of Stockholm, before shooting himself. Police have not said what type of weapon he used but they have said he had a licence to own four weapons, three of which were found beside him.

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US-Panama relationship was ‘very strong’. Then Trump upended the diplomatic playing board

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US had made inroads against Chinese influence in Panama, but Trump’s demands could help Beijing expand its regional power

When Panama’s then president Juan Carlos Varela was invited to the White House in June 2017, Donald Trump said the Panama canal was doing “pretty well” and described the bilateral relationship as “very strong”.

Just days earlier, Varela had broken ties with Taiwan to establish diplomatic relations with China, but there was no indication that this snub to a key US ally had clouded the meeting.

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Teams pull out of Étoile de Bessège cycling race after car enters course

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  • Ineos Grenadiers among teams to withdraw in France
  • Vehicle came towards the peloton at a roundabout

Several teams have pulled out of the Étoile de Bessèges cycling race in France after a car came towards the peloton at a roundabout during the third stage on Friday.

Ineos Grenadiers said: “The safety of our riders and staff is of paramount importance. Following multiple incidents of public vehicles entering the race course our riders, together with other teams, have decided not to complete today’s stage at #EDB2025.”

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Sudanese military reports sweeping gains in battle for capital

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Army making rapid advances across the country and closing in on RSF-held Republican Palace in Khartoum

Sudan’s brutal civil war appears to be approaching a decisive phase as the country’s military reported sweeping gains in the symbolic battle for the capital.

As a ruinous conflict, often characterised by bloody stalemate, nears its two-year anniversary, the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) declared a string of rapid advances across the country against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

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Rebuilding shattered Gaza may require a new Marshall plan

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Palestinians face a mammoth task to rebuild homes and infrastructure – and Trump is unlikely to help

In the week that Donald Trump called for what has been described as an “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians from Gaza to rebuild it as a US “riviera” – an idea as unworkable as it is unhinged – the issues of how, if and when Gaza will be reconstructed have returned to the fore.

The reality is that, for all the promises to rehabilitate the coastal strip after previous conflicts, reconstruction – when it has happened – has at best been very partial and always subordinated to Israel’s demands.

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River near Buenos Aires turns bright red after suspected industrial dye leak

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Residents living near the Sarandí have long complained about pollution in the area

A small river in greater Buenos Aires was dyed a deep and worrying shade of red on Thursday after what is thought to have been a leak of dye from a nearby factory.

The violent hue of the Sarandí, which runs through the municipality of Avellaneda, six miles (9.6km) south of the Argentinian capital, alarmed local residents, who have long complained about industrial pollution in the area.

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Canada intercepts people trying to cross border in ‘incredibly cold’ conditions

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Nine Venezuelans including children found by police in Alberta with a second group apprehended in Manitoba

More than a dozen people have been caught making the hazardous crossing into Canada, renewing focus on the closely watched – and seasonally perilous – border with the United States.

Police in Alberta this week intercepted two groups attempting to cross into Canada illegally, including one which included five children who were ill-prepared for the cold which can plunge as low as -30C (-22F) at this time of year.

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Azerbaijan escalates rare standoff with Russia over downing of passenger plane

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Baku reportedly preparing to appeal to ‘an international court’ unless Moscow takes responsibility for crash

Azerbaijan is escalating its rare standoff with the Kremlin as the fallout from the downing of an Azerbaijani passenger jet continues, highlighting Russia’s diminishing influence across the former Soviet Union.

Thirty-eight people were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed on 25 December near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after rerouting across the Caspian Sea from southern Russia.

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Japan’s PM heads to Washington hoping he can recreate rapport of Trump-Abe era

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Shigeru Ishiba will seek familiar guarantees: that the US will continue to stand on Japan’s side against China and North Korea

Donald Trump had yet to get his feet under the Oval Office desk when he held his first meeting with a foreign leader in late 2016. Shinzo Abe, then Japan’s prime minister, arrived at Trump Tower in November that year bearing a gift of a gold-plated golf club and harbouring a determination to get the Japan-US relationship under Trump off to the best possible start.

The success, or otherwise, of Abe’s charm offensive had potentially serious repercussions. During the election campaign, Trump had suggested he would withdraw US troops from Japan, contingent on Tokyo’s willingness to make a bigger financial contribution to their countries’ postwar alliance.

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Trump administration disbands taskforce targeting Russian oligarchs

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US attorney general issues memo to break up effort started after 2022 Ukraine invasion to target those close to Kremlin

The US justice department under Donald Trump is disbanding an effort started after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin.

A memo from the attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued during a wave of orders on her first day in office but not previously reported, said the effort, known as Task Force KleptoCapture, will end as part of a shift in focus and funding to combating drug cartels and international gangs.

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