Category Archives: World News

Gaza death toll 40% higher than official number, Lancet study finds

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Analysis estimates death toll by end of June was 64,260, with 59% being women, children and people over 65

Research published in the Lancet medical journal estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was about 40% higher than numbers recorded by the Palestinian territory’s health ministry.

The peer-reviewed statistical analysis was conducted by academics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions, using a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis.

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2024 was hottest year on record for world’s land and oceans, US scientists confirm

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Noaa says last year was the warmest since records began in 1850 and Nasa concurs: ‘The long-term trends are very clear’

It was the hottest year ever recorded for the world’s lands and oceans in 2024, US government scientists have confirmed, providing yet another measure of how the climate crisis is pushing humanity into temperatures we have previously never experienced.

Last year was the hottest in global temperature records stretching back to 1850, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa_ announced, with the worldwide average 1.46C (2.6F) warmer than the era prior to humans burning huge volumes of planet-heating fossil fuels.

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Family of former Leicester City owner killed in helicopter crash sue makers for £2.15bn

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Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s relatives demand compensation from Italian firm Leonardo six years after his death

The family of Leicester City’s former owner, who was killed in a helicopter crash outside the club’s stadium in 2018, have launched a lawsuit against the company which made the aircraft.

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s family are suing the Italian aerospace and defence company Leonardo SpA for £2.15bn – the largest fatal accident claim in English history, according to the family’s lawyers.

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Gay men can train as priests but must be celibate, say Italian bishops

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Move marks shift in views but sexually active gay men will not be admitted to Roman Catholic seminaries

Gay men will be allowed to train as priests in Roman Catholic seminaries, so long as they observe celibacy, according to new guidelines announced by the Italian Bishops Conference (CIE).

The decision marks a shift from the view previously held by Pope Francis that gay men should not be admitted to seminaries owing to the risk of them leading a double life.

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Venezuela’s Maduro sworn in amid outrage over alleged fraudulent election

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US announces $65m bounty for arrest of president, who has led country since 2013 and failed to prove he won recent vote

Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, has been​ accused of a shameless and fraudulent power-grab after swearing himself in for a third term, despite domestic outrage and a chorus of international condemnation at his alleged theft of last year’s election.

“This is a great victory for Venezuelan democracy,” the 62-year-old autocrat boasted during a sparsely attended oath-taking ceremony in Caracas that was boycotted by the leaders of democratic nations.

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‘It was extraordinary’: Spanish captain recalls rescue of woman who gave birth in dinghy

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Mother and newborn saved from inflatable boat off Canary Islands, on a route on which thousands have died

The call that would lead to one of the most poignant images of the humanitarian emergency in the deadly waters off the Canary Islands came at 4am.

In the early hours of Monday, the Las Palmas command centre of Spain’s maritime rescue service, Salvamento Marítimo, told Domingo Trujillo, the captain of the search-and-rescue vessel Talía, that a small inflatable boat, packed with people, was adrift 97 nautical miles (180km) off the coast of Lanzarote. Among those onboard, they added, was a woman who was due to give birth at any moment.

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South Africa police find 26 naked Ethiopians held by suspected traffickers

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Three people arrested after group escapes Johannesburg house by breaking a window and burglar bar

South African police have rescued 26 Ethiopians from a suspected human trafficking ring in Johannesburg after the group broke a window and burglar bar to escape from a house where they were being held naked.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of people trafficking and possessing an illegal firearm on Thursday night after neighbours in the Sandringham suburb heard the commotion and tipped off the police, the Hawks serious crime unit said in a statement. Police urged the public to report any other escaped naked people in the area.

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Kenya court rules that criminalising attempted suicide is unconstitutional

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The judgment has been welcomed as an important shift in perceptions by human rights and mental health groups

A Kenyan judge has declared as unconstitutional sections of the country’s laws that criminalise attempted suicide. In a landmark ruling on Thursday, Judge Lawrence Mugambi of the country’s high court stated that section 226 of the penal code contradicts the constitution by punishing those with mental health issues over which they may have little or no control.

While the constitution says in article 43 that a person has the right to the “highest attainable standard of health”, criminal law states that “any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanour and is subject to imprisonment of up to two years, a fine, or both”, with the minimum age of prosecution for the offence set at eight years old.

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Lisa Nandy rejects calls for England to boycott Afghanistan cricket match

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Culture secretary says it should go ahead despite pressure for it to be cancelled over Taliban’s treatment of women

England should be allowed to play next month’s cricket match against Afghanistan, the culture and sport secretary has said, despite calls for a boycott over the Taliban government’s treatment of women.

Lisa Nandy backed a decision by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to allow the game to go ahead, saying on Friday that cancelling it would “deny sports fans the opportunity that they love”.

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Visa-waiver system could overwhelm UK immigration services, law firm warns

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There are also fears electronic travel authorisation will threaten post-peace tourism sector in Northern Ireland

The UK Home Office’s already burdened immigration services could be overwhelmed this summer when a new visa-waiver system comes into force for European business travellers and tourists in April, a leading law firm has said.

There have also been fresh warnings that the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) requirements could threaten the post-peace tourism sector in Northern Ireland, with Americans and Europeans travelling to Dublin and beyond deciding not to bother crossing the border because of the red tape.

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Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado ‘kidnapped’, allies say

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Leader reportedly freed after being ‘violently intercepted’ having left hideout to lead protest against Nicolás Maduro

Allies of Venezuela’s most influential opposition leader, María Corina Machado, said she had been “kidnapped” from the streets of Caracas by regime officials after sneaking out of her hideout to lead a major protest against the authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro.

About three hours after the announcement, Machado supporters said she had been released having been knocked off a motorbike and “taken away by force” while leaving the rally and had been compelled to record a number of videos.

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Met bans pro-Palestine march from gathering outside BBC headquarters

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Scotland Yard imposes Public Order Act owing to proximity of Broadcasting House to a nearby synagogue

Scotland Yard has banned a pro-Palestine march from gathering outside the BBC’s London headquarters next week, owing to its proximity to a synagogue.

Protesters were planning to gather outside Broadcasting House in Portland Place on Saturday before marching to Whitehall. On Thursday evening, police said they had imposed the Public Order Act to prevent the rally from gathering in the area as it risked causing “serious disruption” to a nearby synagogue on the Jewish holy day, as congregants attend Shabbat services.

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Elon Musk heaps praise on AfD’s Alice Weidel during live talk on X

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X owner and far-right politician appear to agree on everything, as Musk faces accusations of meddling in German election

Elon Musk has praised the co-leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, as he repeated his claim that “only the AfD can save Germany” during a controversial live talk on his social media platform X.

The virtual encounter between Musk and Alice Weidel on Thursday took place amid growing criticism over the US billionaire’s vocal support of far-right, anti-establishment parties across Europe, and accusations he is meddling in the campaign for Germany’s 23 February election.

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Uruguay’s popular former president José Mujica reveals he is dying of cancer

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‘My cycle is over,’ says leftwinger, 89, who lives humbly and oversaw one of healthiest and most liberal democracies

José Mujica, the former guerrilla who became Uruguay’s president and a global progressive icon, has announced that the cancer in his oesophagus has spread to his liver, and that he has chosen to forgo further treatment.

In what Mujica said would be his last interview, he told Búsqueda, a weekly news magazine in Uruguay, that he was “doomed”.

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Italian mayor vows to stop sale of Neapolitan islet to wealthy speculator

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Bacoli mayor says his administration wants to buy Punta Pennata and turn it into an ‘open-air museum’

An Italian mayor has vowed to do everything in his power to stop Punta Pennata – a slice of island paradise close to the heart of Naples, from where a fleet departed to rescue survivors of the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius – being sold to a wealthy speculator.

Located within the pristine waters of Bacoli, a fishing town located in the vast volcanic area of the Campi Flegrei, and described as a “historical and natural gem”, the strip of land was put up for sale to the highest bidder this week.

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Birkenstock sues ‘copycat’ rivals claiming its sandals are applied art

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German maker of fashionable cork-based footwear files three lawsuits alleging copyright infringement

Once sneered at as the preserve of muesli-loving, Guardian-reading hippies, Birkenstocks have more recently been promoted to the status of fashion item, not least since they took a starring role in the Barbie movie. But now cork-soled sandals are facing their day in court as their German makers call for them to be protected in perpetuity – and to be recognised as nothing less than a unique work of art.

Germany’s federal court of justice is to decide on the future of the ergonomic sandal after three lawsuits against alleged copycat competitors were lodged on Thursday by the footwear manufacturer.

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Lebanon elects Joseph Aoun as president after two-year vacancy

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Army commander’s election increases confidence that ceasefire with Israel will hold

Lebanon’s parliament has elected the army commander Joseph Aoun as the country’s new president, ending a more than two-year vacancy and increasing confidence that a ceasefire with Israel will hold.

Aoun received 99 out of 128 votes in the 13th attempt by a deeply divided parliament to elect a new head of state after the departure of the former president Michel Aoun, who is no relation, in October 2022. Aoun was the favoured candidate of international powers such as Saudi Arabia, France and the US, which enjoyed good relations with him in his role as head of Lebanon’s armed forces.

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Greenland’s prime minister calls for calm after Trump comments

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Pro-independence Múte Egede says Greenland must stay unified after becoming centre of US-Denmark spat

Greenland’s prime minister has called for unity, urging citizens not to panic, after being thrown into a geopolitical battle between the US and Denmark by Donald Trump’s interest in taking control of the territory.

Múte Egede said he understood people may be concerned after the incoming US president declined to rule out using military and economic force to gain control of Greenland, but called on his fellow citizens to “put aside differences and stand together”.

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Murder investigation in Spain after body of missing Belfast man found

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Family ‘heartbroken’ after discovery of body of John George, 37, who went missing in Alicante area in December

A murder investigation is under way in Spain after the body of a 37-year-old man from Northern Ireland was found three weeks after he went missing.

John George from Belfast, a father of two children, was in Spain for a short visit in December but the alarm was raised when he failed to board a flight home on 18 December.

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US seizure of Greenland is ‘not going to happen’, says David Lammy

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UK foreign secretary plays down idea of Trump taking control, in speech exposing differences with president-elect

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said a US military seizure of Greenland is not going to happen, as he played down Donald Trump’s threats to seize the territory from Denmark.

“No Nato countries have gone to war [with each other] since the establishment of Nato, and I do not envisage that,” he said, adding: “It is not going to happen.”

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