Category Archives: World News

Zelenskyy expects ‘strong steps’ from US if Russia rejects ceasefire

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Ukraine president describes talks with US delegation as positive as countries attempt to repair relations

Ukraine’s president has said he hopes the US will take “strong steps” against Russia if Moscow fails to support a 30-day ceasefire, agreed at a meeting between Ukrainian and US delegations in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

“I understand that we could count on strong steps. I don’t know the details yet but we are talking about sanctions and about strengthening Ukraine,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

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Ecuador’s president enlists ex-Blackwater chief in controversial crime crackdown

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Daniel Noboa, who is seeking re-election, announced the partnership with Erik Prince, a supporter of Donald Trump

Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, has announced a “strategic alliance” with the Donald Trump-supporting founder of the private military firm Blackwater to supposedly reinforce his controversial “war” on crime.

Noboa, the rightwing heir to a South American banana empire, announced the partnership with Erik Prince on social media on Tuesday night.

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Pakistan operation to free hostages after train hijacking ends with dozens killed

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Security services claim to have rescued about 190 people being held by Baloch Liberation Army in remote area

An operation to rescue hundreds of people taken hostage when a train was hijacked by a separatist militant group in remote south-west Pakistan has ended with dozens killed in the onslaught, a spokesperson for the army has said.

Pakistan’s security services claimed late on Wednesday to have rescued about 190 people who were being held captive after militants from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) blew up a railway line and launched an attack on the Jaffar Express train.

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Art of a deal: how UK and France led dogged effort to repair US-Ukraine ties – for now

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Over 11 days of breakneck diplomacy, Kyiv was convinced of need to pacify Trump, but reconciliation may be all too brief

The 11 days of whiplash-inducing talks British and French officials endured to repair shattered relations between Washington and Kyiv, and for the first time put Donald Trump’s trust in Vladimir Putin to the test, could go down as one of the great feats of diplomatic escapology.

The dogged fence-mending may yet unravel as hurdles remain, principally the outstanding question of Ukraine’s security guarantees, but for the first time, in the words of Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, the ball is in Russia’s court. Putin, by instinct cautious, has preferred watching from the sidelines, suppressing his delight as Trump denounced Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his face in the White House and wreaked subsequent vengeance by stopping all military aid and then pulling some US intelligence.

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Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda could keep the world hooked on oil and gas

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The US president is making energy deals with Japan and Ukraine, and in Africa has even touted resurrecting coal

Donald Trump’s repeated mantra of “drill, baby, drill” demands that more oil and gas be extracted in the United States, but the president has set his sights on an even broader goal: keeping the world hooked on planet-heating fossil fuels for as long as possible.

In deals being formulated with countries such as Japan and Ukraine, Trump is using US leverage in tariffs and military aid to bolster the flow of oil and gas around the world. In Africa, his administration has even touted the resurrection of coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, to bring energy to the continent.

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Biased laws and poverty driving huge rise in female prisoners – report

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First such study finds laws on abortion, debt and dress help increase rate of women being jailed twice as fast as for men

Poverty, abuse and discriminatory laws are driving a huge rise in the number of women in prison globally, according to a new report.

With the rise of the far right and an international backlash against women’s rights, the research said there was a risk that laws would increasingly be used to target women, forcing more behind bars.

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‘I feel utter anger’: From Canada to Europe, a movement to boycott US goods is spreading

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Tesla sales are falling and apps and online groups are springing up to help consumers choose non-US items

The renowned German classical violinist Christian Tetzlaff was blunt in explaining why he and his quartet have cancelled a summer tour of the US.

“There seems to be a quietness or denial about what’s going on,” Tetzlaff said, describing his horror at the authoritarian polices of Donald Trump and the response of US elites to the country’s growing democratic crisis.

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Rodrigo Duterte’s lawyers demand he is returned to the Philippines after ICC arrest

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Daughter accuses government of ‘kidnapping’ the former president as victims of his ‘war on drugs’ express jubilation over his arrest

Lawyers for the former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte have demanded that he be returned to Manila in a petition filed to the supreme court, as victims of the former leaders’ bloody “war on drugs” expressed jubilation.

Duterte, who was flown to The Hague on Tuesday night to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to anti-drugs crackdowns is the first former Asian leader to be served an arrest warrant filed by the ICC. Activists say as many as 30,000 people were killed in the “war on drugs”.

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Portugal faces third election in three years as government loses confidence vote

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Two-party alliance led by the Social Democratic party was in power for less than a year

Portugal’s minority government has lost a vote of confidence in parliament, forcing its resignation and bringing the EU country’s third general election in three years.

The exact vote count wasn’t immediately available, but the speaker of parliament, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, said the centre-right government was defeated.

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German tourists’ ordeal reportedly ending as they are returned from US detention

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Jessica Brösche to join Lucas Sielaff, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March

A German tourist detained by US immigration authorities is due to be deported back to Germany on Tuesday after spending more than six weeks in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement.

Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, will reportedly join Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Bad Bibra in Saxony-Anhalt, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March, after being arrested at the Mexican border on 18 February before being detained for almost two weeks.

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Israeli police raid Palestinian bookshop in East Jerusalem twice in a month

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Books about Banksy and by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé were removed, and one of the owners detained

Israeli police have raided the leading Palestinian bookshop in East Jerusalem for the second time in a month, detaining one of its owners for several hours and seizing some of its stock.

The deputy state attorney’s office had warned police that they overstepped their authority with the first raid on the shop in February. Officers again arrived at the Educational Bookshop without a warrant on Tuesday morning, staff said.

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Dizzying turnaround in US-Ukraine relations leaves all eyes on Russia

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Putin may well stick to previous demands over Ukrainian elections and a rejection of European peacekeeping forces

Suddenly the ball is in Russia’s court. The flow of US intelligence and military aid to Ukraine is to resume – and the Kremlin is being asked to agree to a 30-day ceasefire that Kyiv has already told the Americans it will sign up to.

It is a dizzying turnaround from the Oval Office row between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump and the apparent abandonment of the White House’s strategy to simply pressurise Ukraine into agreeing to a peace deal. Now, for the first time, Russia is being asked to make a commitment, though it is unclear what will follow if it does sign up.

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Militants say 214 people taken hostage as train hijacked in Pakistan

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Baloch Liberation Army claims to have killed 30 military personnel after blowing up tracks in Balochistan region

A separatist militant group in Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province says it has taken 214 hostages including military personnel after hijacking a train, as the country’s security situation continues to decline sharply.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) blew up the tracks and fired on the Jaffar Express train as it travelled through a tunnel in a remote and mountainous area, bringing the train to a halt.

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Sierra Leone’s immigration chief fired after footage showed him with fugitive drug lord

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President sacks Alusine Kanneh after video of him with Johannes Leijdekkers, one of Europe’s most wanted

Sierra Leone’s president has fired the head of the immigration service days after footage was published showing him receiving a birthday gift from a fugitive Dutch drug kingpin.

The footage of Alusine Kanneh being handed a present by Johannes Leijdekkers – which has not been independently verified by the Guardian – was published by the investigative outlet Follow the Money and the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad on Friday.

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Greenland faces ‘fateful choice’ says island’s PM as it prepares for election

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Poll takes place against backdrop of threats by Donald Trump and growing calls for independence

Greenland’s prime minister said voters face a “fateful choice” as the Arctic island prepares to go to the polls in a pivotal election closely watched by Europe and the US.

The vote on Tuesday has attracted global attention after Donald Trump’s repeated assertions about acquiring the autonomous territory, using military and economic force if necessary.

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One killed in largest Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, authorities say

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At least 91 drones descended on Russian capital, forcing flights and train services to be suspended

Ukraine targeted Moscow early on Tuesday in what authorities said was its largest ever drone attack on the Russian capital, killing at least one person, sparking fires and forcing the suspension of flights and train travel.

The Russian defence ministry said 337 drones were launched at Russia over Monday night, with 91 of them targeting the Moscow region. The Moscow city mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said it was the largest Ukrainian drone attack on the city. The governor of the wider region, Andrei Vorobyov, said: “At the moment, one person is known to have died and three were injured.”

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K-pop singer Wheesung found dead at home aged 43

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Tributes have been paid to singer who had a string of hits in South Korea including a cover of Craig David’s Insomnia

The South Korean singer Wheesung has died aged 43, with police reportedly planning to conduct an autopsy to determine his cause of death.

The singer, whose name was Choi Whee-sung, was found unconscious in his apartment on Monday night by emergency responders after his mother called for help, local media reported.

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Portugal set for snap general election as PM faces confidence vote

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MPs prepare to debate a motion of confidence that looks likely to topple centre-right government

Portugal is bracing for its third snap general election in as many years as MPs prepare to debate a motion of confidence that looks set to topple the centre-right government and trigger a return to the polls in May.

Luís Montenegro, the prime minister, who heads the Democratic Alliance (AD) platform that has governed Portugal since its narrow victory in last year’s election, called the vote of confidence, which is due to take place on Tuesday, in response to growing questions over his family’s business activities.

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Taoiseach must tread carefully amid tensions before Trump meeting

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Defence, the Palestinians and Irish-American trade will all be on the agenda as Micheál Martin heads to Washington

St Patrick’s Day has long been one of the sacred moments of the Irish-American calendar with more than 200 years of parades in New York and a shamrock reception at the White House launched by Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 to cement political ties between the two nations.

But this year’s annual meeting between the taoiseach and the US president, a week early because of a congressional recess on 17 March, is laden with anxiety over the future of Ireland’s economy, which is heavily reliant on US multinationals Donald Trump wants to repatriate.

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Duterte flown to The Hague after arrest over Philippines drug war killings

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Ex-president to face charges of crimes against humanity over ‘war on drugs’ that rights groups say left 30,000 dead

The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has left Manila on a plane headed to The Hague, hours after he was served with an arrest warrant from the international criminal court over the killings resulting from his “war on drugs”.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr told a press conference that a plane carrying Duterte took off at 11.03pm local time on Tuesday. “The plane is en route to The Hague in the Netherlands, allowing the former president to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs,” he said.

Duterte’s youngest daughter, Veronica Duterte, said on social media that the plane had been used to “kidnap” her father.

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