German MPs have voted to pass a motion to loosen the country’s strict borrowing rules, altering the constitution. The measure had been proposed by Friedrich Merz, the presumptive incoming chancellor, in the outgoing Bundestag, or federal parliament
A motion put before the outgoing Bundestag to alter the German constitution to allow for greater investment and borrowing, in part to fund higher defence spending. The vote needs a two-thirds majority to pass.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary receives rare public rebuke as No 10 rows back by saying Israel ‘at risk’ of breaching rules
Downing Street has rejected David Lammy’s assessment that Israel has broken international law by blocking aid to Gaza, in a rare public censure for the foreign secretary.
A spokesperson for the prime minister said on Tuesday morning Israel was “at risk” of breaching humanitarian law, despite Lammy having told the Commons on Monday that the country had definitely done so.
Continue reading...Berlin checking if US immigration policy has changed after Fabian Schmidt becomes third German to be detained
Berlin is investigating whether US immigration policy has changed, after a German national who is a permanent US resident was detained and “violently interrogated” by US border officials.
Fabian Schmidt, 34, is being held at a detention centre in Rhode Island after attempting to return to his home in New Hampshire after a trip to Luxembourg.
Continue reading...Groups representing Israeli hostages plan protests and issue statements calling for an immediate ceasefire
Protesters in Israel have accused Benjamin Netanyahu of ordering the airstrikes that shattered the ceasefire in Gaza on Tuesday to provide “cover” for a campaign to dismantle Israel’s democratic system and to maintain his own grip on power.
Political tensions in Israel surged after the Israeli prime minister announced on Sunday that he would seek to fire the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, an unprecedented move that legal experts said may be unlawful.
Continue reading...Mark Carney-led ruling party projected to form majority months after political wipeout seemed inevitable
In January, Canadian pollsters and political pundits struggled to find fresh ways to describe the bleak prospects of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party, musing whether it would be a wipeout of existential proportions, or merely a catastrophic blowout.
But fresh polling released by three companies this week shows a stunning reversal of fortunes for the party: newly minted prime minister Mark Carney’s Liberals are projected to secure a majority government.
Continue reading...Aurelio Martínez believed killed after plane crashed while taking off from Roatán island in Caribbean
At least 12 people, including a prominent member of the Garifuna music scene have died after a small plane crashed into the sea while taking off from a Caribbean island off Honduras, officials said.
The Lanhsa airlines plane departed at nightfall on Monday from Roatán, one of the Central American country’s main tourist destinations, heading for the port of La Ceiba, on the mainland.
Continue reading...Maria Ressa says rules-based order ‘can perhaps still exist’ but social media is being used to undermine democracy around the world
The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte is a welcome sign that the rules-based order continues to hold, the Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has said, even as the global order has been marred by the US “descending into hell” at the hands of the same forces that consumed the Philippines.
Ressa’s remarks came after Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, made his first appearance before the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, accused of committing crimes against humanity during his brutal “war on drugs”.
Continue reading...Advocates warn firings and funding freezes already risk poisoning drinking water and decimating fish population
Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s attacks on federal agencies and funding freezes will be “cataclysmic” for the environment of the sensitive Great Lakes region if not reversed, industry and environmental advocates in the region warn.
Initial actions taken since Trump returned to the White House in January – and put Musk in charge of slashing the federal government – already risk poisoning drinking water, decimating fish populations, and risking the jobs and health of tens of millions of people who rely on the lake system, they add.
Continue reading...Deal will restrict fishing near colonies on Robben Island and Bird Island for 10 years, after long debate between industry and conservationists
Efforts to stop the critically endangered African penguin from going extinct took a step forward on Tuesday after South African conservationists and fishing industry groups reached a legal settlement on no-fishing zones around six of the penguins’ major breeding colonies.
Sardine and anchovy fishing will not be allowed for 12 miles (20km) around the penguin colony off Cape Town on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, and Bird Island, across the bay from Gqeberha, also known as Port Elizabeth. There will be more limited closures around four other colonies, according to a court order formalising the agreement.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Why Benjamin Netanyahu ordered new attacks on dozens of sites in Gaza – and what happens next
Good morning. Just before 2.30am local time, Israel launched airstrikes on dozens of targets across Gaza. War planes hit sites across the territory, from Gaza City in the north to Khan Younis in the south. At least 330 people have been reported dead so far, Gaza’s health ministry said, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s office appeared to suggest that the two-month-old ceasefire is now over: “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” it said.
You can follow the latest here at the Guardian’s live blog. Today’s newsletter explains what’s happened overnight, and why. Here are the headlines.
UK politics | Keir Starmer will unveil drastic cuts to disability benefits on Tuesday, despite deep opposition from Labour MPs and poverty campaigners, and warnings from economists against making kneejerk savings to hit fiscal targets. The changes are expected to affect some of the UK’s most severely disabled people.
UK news | Lucy Letby has called for the public inquiry into her crimes to be halted, arguing there is now “overwhelming and compelling” evidence undermining her baby murder convictions. Lawyers for the former nurse took the extraordinary step of writing to Lady Justice Thirlwall on Monday to say that the inquiry – due to end on Wednesday – should be suspended immediately.
Space | Two Nasa astronauts “stranded” aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since last summer were finally on their way back to Earth on a SpaceX vessel on Tuesday, more than nine months after the failure of Boeing’s pioneering Starliner capsule scuppered their originally scheduled week-long mission.
Finance | The hedge fund manager Crispin Odey will be banned from the City and hit with a £1.8m fine by the UK’s financial watchdog for deliberately attempting to “frustrate” a disciplinary process into sexual harassment allegations.
Second world war | The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John “Paddy” Hemingway, has died aged 105. The Royal Air Force (RAF) said Hemingway, a member of “the Few” who took to the skies during the second world war, died peacefully on Monday.
Continue reading...Global Times hails US president’s order to strip back government funding to news organisations he deems ‘radical’
Chinese state media has reacted gleefully to the Trump administration’s decision to slash government funding to media organisations such as Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA).
The Global Times, a daily English-language tabloid and Chinese Communist party mouthpiece, celebrated the cuts to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees broadcasters such as VOA and RFA.
Continue reading...Likely next chancellor needs two-thirds majority to back €500bn infrastructure fund and relaxation of debt rules
Germany’s likely next chancellor is to face a key vote on plans to unlock a record level of state borrowing, which he argues is necessary to boost the country’s military spending and inject growth into its ailing economy.
Ahead of the crucial Bundestag vote on Tuesday, Friedrich Merz has faced a barrage of complaints from the opposition and from within his own ranks that he is not coupling the historic levels of spending planned – as much as €1tn (£840bn) – to demands for reform.
Continue reading...BYD unveils platform with charging power of 1,000 kW, which would be twice as fast as Tesla’s supercharging
The Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD has unveiled a new charging system that it said could make it possible for EVs to charge as quickly as it takes to refill with petrol.
BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares gained 4.1% on Tuesday to hit a record high of 408.80 Hong Kong dollars, as investors bet that the company could strengthen its already commanding position as one of the world’s biggest electric carmakers.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu’s office blames Hamas’s refusal to release hostages for IDF strikes that are reported to have killed at least 30 people
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed at least 200 people, Palestinian health authorities said, as attacks hit dozens of targets early on Tuesday, ending a weeks-long standoff over extending the ceasefire that halted fighting in January.
Strikes were reported at sites including northern Gaza and Gaza City as well as Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah in central and southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian health ministry officials said many of the dead were children.
Continue reading...Administration claims it didn’t stop flights despite judge’s instructions because he did not write it in the formal order
The Trump administration claimed to a federal judge on Monday that it did not recall deportation flights of hundreds of suspected Venezuelan gang members over the weekend despite his specific instructions because that was not expressly included in the formal written order issued afterwards.
The administration also said that even if James Boasberg, the chief US district judge in Washington, had included that instruction in his formal order, his authority to compel the planes to return disappeared the moment the planes entered international airspace.
Continue reading...Many of 27 people who drowned in 2021 might have survived if rescue services had searched for longer, lawyers argue
Many of the people who drowned in the biggest ever loss of life in a migrant dinghy in the Channel could have been saved if rescue services had searched for them for longer, lawyers for their families have said.
Their comments came after the independent Cranston inquiry, which is scrutinising the circumstances surrounding the mass drowning, heard evidence from an expert into survivability in the water.
Continue reading...Marcedes Myran’s remains found in search mission after Jeremy Skibicki preyed on Indigenous women in 2022
Canadian police have confirmed the identity of a second woman whose body was dumped at a private landfill near Winnipeg by a serial killer who preyed on Indigenous women and left their bodies hidden in trash.
The Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted police said in a statement on Monday that the human remains found in the Prairie Green Landfill, north of Winnipeg, were those of Marcedes Myran, 26.
Continue reading...Trump administration used Alien Enemies Act to deport about 250 alleged gang members to El Salvador
The White House has denied allegations that it engaged in a “a blatant violation” of a judge’s order by deporting about 250 Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador on Saturday, with the US border czar appearing to contradict the denial on Monday by declaring: “I don’t care what the judges think.”
The US district judge James E Boasberg has scheduled a hearing for Monday afternoon to demand an explanation about why his Saturday order temporarily blocking the deportation flights had apparently been ignored.
Continue reading...Micheál Martin says MMA fighter’s comments before Trump meeting ‘do not reflect spirit of St Patrick’s Day’
Ireland’s taoiseach has denounced anti-immigration comments made by Conor McGregor as the MMA fighter visited the White House before a St Patrick’s Day meeting with Donald Trump.
McGregor said “Ireland is on the cusp of losing its Irishness” and that an “illegal immigration racket” was “running ravage on the country”.
Continue reading...Demonstrators call for change and justice for 59 victims after tragedy blamed on multiple safety violations
With flags still flying at half mast in North Macedonia, grief over a fire that tore through a nightclub killing dozens of people turned to anger as thousands took to the streets in protest.
In Kočani, the town where the fire destroyed the Pulse venue early on Sunday, demonstrators demanded justice for the 59 mostly young Macedonians who lost their lives and called for an end to the corrupt practices blamed for the tragedy.
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