Bloc to discuss trade, security and energy with leaders of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan
The EU is being urged to put human rights centre stage as it begins its first summit with the leaders of central Asia.
The president of the European Council, António Costa, and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, are meeting the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on Friday.
Continue reading...Mette Frederiksen, who met island’s new and outgoing PMs, says she wants to cooperate with Trump on Arctic security
The Danish prime minister has put on a show of unity with Greenlandic leaders in her first visit to the Arctic island since Donald Trump’s renewed threats to acquire the territory, telling the US: “You cannot annex another country.”
Speaking onboard an inspection ship in front of a military helicopter, alongside Greenland’s new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and its outgoing prime minister, Múte B Egede, Mette Frederiksen switched from Danish to English to address the diplomatic standoff with the Trump administration.
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee from southern city of Rafah in one of war’s biggest mass displacements
An Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in Gaza City has killed at least 27 people, rescuers said, and hundreds of thousands in the Rafah area are fleeing in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war amid Israel’s newly announced campaign to “divide up” the Gaza Strip.
Three missiles hit Dar al-Arqam school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon, the civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said, killing several children and wounding 100 people.
Continue reading...Son of murdered academic calls on Facebook owner to ‘radically change how it moderates dangerous content’
Meta faces a $2.4bn (£1.8bn) lawsuit accusing the Facebook owner of inflaming violence in Ethiopia after the Kenyan high court said a legal case against the US tech group could go ahead.
The case brought by two Ethiopian nationals calls on Facebook to alter its algorithm to stop promoting hateful material and incitement to violence, as well as hiring more content moderators in Africa. It is also seeking a $2.4bn “restitution fund” for victims of hate and violence incited on Facebook.
Continue reading...Police say man landed on island in attempt to meet the Sentinelese people – a tribe untouched by the industrial world
Indian police said on Thursday they had arrested a US tourist who sneaked on to a highly restricted island carrying a coconut and a can of Diet Coke to a tribe untouched by the industrial world.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel – part of India’s Andaman Islands – in an attempt to meet the Sentinelese people, who are believed to number only about 150.
Continue reading...Israeli PM, who is wanted by the court, hails Viktor Orbán’s ‘bold and principled’ decision to leave the ‘corrupt’ body
Hungary will leave the international criminal court because it has become “political”, the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said as he welcomed his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanhayu – the subject of an ICC arrest warrant – to Budapest for an official visit.
Standing beside Netanyahu at the start of the four-day visit, Orbàn said Hungary was convinced the “otherwise very important court” had “diminished into a political forum”.
Continue reading...Three claimants allege Mumbai-based consultancy firm discriminated against them during restructuring
A UK division of the Indian conglomerate Tata “deliberately orchestrated” a redundancy programme in a way that unfairly targeted older, non-Indian nationals, an employment tribunal has heard.
Three claimants allege the Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is valued at almost £110bn on the BSE stock exchange in Mumbai, discriminated against them on grounds of age and nationality during a restructuring that began in mid-2023.
Continue reading...Munther Abed, 27, was in the first ambulance on the scene of an airstrike near Rafah when Israeli soldiers opened fire
• Gaza paramedic killings: a visual timeline
A survivor from a massacre of Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers in Gaza has said he saw Israeli troops open fire on a succession of Red Crescent ambulances and rescue vehicles and then use a bulldozer to bury the wreckage in a pit.
Munther Abed, a 27-year-old Red Crescent volunteer, was in the back of the first ambulance to arrive on the scene of an airstrike in the Hashashin district of Rafah before dawn on 23 March, when it came under intense Israeli fire. His two Red Crescent colleagues sitting in the front were killed but he survived by throwing himself to the floor of the vehicle.
Continue reading...Sara Campanella and Ilaria Sula were found within 48 hours of each other, bringing the number of femicides in 2025 to 11
There have been calls in Italy for a “cultural rebellion” amid outrage and protests over the murders of two female students found within 48 hours of each other, bringing the number of femicides in the country since the start of the year to 11.
Sara Campanella, a 22-year-old biomedical student, was stabbed at a bus stop in the Sicilian city of Messina on Monday afternoon and died while being taken to hospital.
Continue reading...Communities in Ruaha national park reject response to alleged assault and evictions of herders during tourism scheme funded by the bank
The World Bank is embarking on a multimillion-dollar programme in response to alleged human rights abuses against Tanzanian herders during a flagship tourism project it funded for seven years.
Allegations made by pastoralist communities living in and around Ruaha national park include violent evictions, sexual assaults, killings, forced disappearances and large-scale cattle seizures from herders committed by rangers working for the Tanzanian national park authority (Tanapa).
Continue reading...Prime minister says tariffs will be ‘a challenge’ but UK is better placed with 10% rate than EU at 20%
Keir Starmer has told heads of business in Downing Street that “clearly there will be an economic impact” from US tariffs but that ministers would respond with “cool and calm heads”.
The prime minister gathered senior business figures in No 10 after Donald Trump announced he would introduce 10% blanket tariffs on imports from the UK, and 25% on car imports.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Israel’s offensive has resulted in thousands of casualties and severe restrictions on aid, and signals a potential long-term territorial and political shift
Good morning. On Tuesday, Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, announced a major expansion of attacks on Gaza and the “capture of large areas that will be added to the security zones of the state of Israel”.
The announcement followed a night of airstrikes on Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza, which officials said had killed at least 21 people, including a pregnant woman. The intensification of Israel’s offensive comes after more than two weeks of airstrikes and ground operations that have, according to Gaza’s health ministry, killed more than 900 people. Unicef has said that at least 322 of those killed since the renewed attacks have been children.
UK economy | Donald Trump has hit the UK with tariffs of 10% on exports to the US as he ignited a global trade war. Other tariffs include 20% on the EU and 34% on China. Downing Street had been expecting 20% but Keir Starmer’s conciliation towards the Trump administration appeared to have paid off.
Immigration | An investigation has been launched after a racist message was reportedly “blasted out” on portable radios used by Home Office contractors at an asylum processing centre. The deeply offensive broadcast – “fuck off you [N-word]s, go back to where you came from” – was reportedly heard at the Manston processing site for small boat arrivals in Kent.
Health | Doctors have reported a rise in the number of patients with Victorian diseases such as scabies, as the Royal College of Physicians urged the government to do more to fight poverty.
UK news | A third former South Yorkshire police officer has been arrested as part of an investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham. The ex-constable, aged in his 50s, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of raping a teenage girl in the town in 2004.
Education | The fate of boys “is a defining issue of our time”, according to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, as she calls for more men to become teachers to combat “toxic” behaviours.
Continue reading...Israeli prime minister begins four-day trip after Hungarian counterpart says court ruling would ‘have no effect’
Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to begin a four-day official visit to Hungary on Thursday, marking the first time the Israeli prime minister has stepped foot on European soil since the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him over allegations of war crimes in Gaza.
Hours after the ICC announced the warrants in November, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, made it clear he would defy the court to host Netanyahu, telling reporters that he would “guarantee” the ICC’s ruling would “have no effect in Hungary”.
Continue reading...Myanmar, which is reeling from a huge earthquake and civil war, faces 44% rate amid suspicions that the underlying target is China
Developing nations in South-east Asia, including war-torn and earthquake-hit Myanmar, and several African nations are among the trading partners facing the highest tariffs set by US President Donald Trump.
Upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war, Trump on Wednesday announced a raft of tariffs he said were designed to stop the US economy from being “cheated”.
Continue reading...Resolution that would block tariffs passes 51-48 in Senate, in vote that shows Republican unease over president’s plans
Several Republican senators joined Democrats to pass a resolution that would block Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare rebuke of the president’s trade policy just hours after he announced plans for sweeping import taxes on some of the country’s largest trading partners.
In a 51-48 vote, four Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and both Kentucky senators, the former majority leader Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul – defied Trump’s pressure campaign and supported the measure. Democrats used a procedural maneuver to force a vote on the resolution, which would terminate the national emergency on fentanyl Trump is using to justify tariffs on Canada.
Continue reading...Automotive industry and prime minister Mark Carney note that 25% tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and automobiles will still come into effect within hours
Canada’s exemption from Donald Trump’s global tariffs was “like dodging a bullet into the path of a tank”, say business leaders as other levies are poised to hit key industries that drive the country’s economy.
In a theatrical unveiling of tariffs on countries with “unfair” practices on Wednesday afternoon, Canada was noticeably absent, alongside trade ally Mexico.
Continue reading...There were charts and scores, as if The Price Is Right had come to Washington. The big prize? A global trade war
It was Jeopardy!, or The Price Is Right, come to Washington.
On an unseasonably chilly day in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump stood with a giant chart listing which reciprocal tariffs he would impose on China, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other hapless contestants.
Continue reading...Pacific country this week declared state of emergency over power cuts that have caused huge disruption to businesses and daily life
Samoa is in the grip of an “energy crisis” prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa said this week, as she declared a state of emergency over power outages that have swept the country for weeks, causing huge disruption to businesses and daily life.
The government is scrambling to provide relief to affected businesses and households, with temporary power generation units due to arrive next week.
Continue reading...Britain gets off comparatively lightly but US president’s action could still cost billions in lost growth
Donald Trump has hit the UK with tariffs of 10% on exports to the US as he ignited a global trade war that could wipe billions off economic growth.
The US president accused other nations, including allies, of “looting, pillaging, raping and plundering” the US, as he announced tariffs on economic rivals including 20% on the EU and 34% on China as part of what he dubbed “liberation day”.
Continue reading...Forecasters say potent storm system moving east could become supercharged and bring ‘life-threatening’ flooding
Potentially deadly flash flooding, high-magnitude tornadoes and baseball-sized hail could hit parts of the midwest and south on Wednesday as severe thunderstorms blowing eastward become supercharged, forecasters warned.
There were tornado warnings Wednesday morning near the Missouri cities of Joplin and Columbia – merely the opening acts of what forecasters expect will be a more intense period of violent weather later on Wednesday, as daytime heating combines with an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming into the nation’s midsection from the Gulf.
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