Partnership ‘a long time coming’ and is latest expansion of Australian-made animated series
The global hit children’s TV show Bluey is to make its Lego debut with the first sets due to hit shelves later this year.
The world of Bluey, which has proved such a small-screen hit a film is to be made for global release in 2027, is to be brought to life in plastic brick form with six sets to be revealed this spring before going on sale later this year.
Continue reading...Exclusive: SDF leader says removal of 2,000-strong force would leave door open for Islamic State resurgence
The leader of the Kurdish forces that control north-eastern Syria has called on Donald Trump to maintain a US military presence in the region, warning that a retreat would risk a resurgence of Islamic State in the country.
Gen Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said IS had increased its strength in the desert after seizing arms from the collapsed Assad regime, while the Kurdish forces were coming under increased pressure from Turkey and its Syrian proxies.
Continue reading...Global democratic leaders pledge a boycott as exiled opposition leader vows to return to challenge ceremony
Venezuela’s tumble into authoritarianism is poised to enter an even harsher new phase this week with Nicolás Maduro set to extend his 12-year rule despite widespread suspicions that he stole last year’s presidential election.
The man widely believed to have won that vote – retired diplomat Edmundo González – fled abroad to escape a draconian post-election crackdown but has vowed to return home to challenge Maduro’s planned inauguration on Friday.
Continue reading...Venâncio Mondlane went into self-imposed exile after disputed elections in October, saying he feared being assassinated
Mozambique’s opposition leader, Venâncio Mondlane, has returned to the country from self-imposed exile, saying he is ready for talks with the government after claiming October’s elections were stolen from him.
In large dark sunglasses, Mondlane dropped to his knees as he exited the arrivals door of Maputo’s international airport and appeared to be praying. He spoke to journalists outside, wearing a fake flower garland, before his car edged through crowds of cheering supporters.
Continue reading...Seeking business partners post-Brexit is sound policy, but even in these darker geopolitical times the UK will ultimately side with the US
Rachel Reeves will fly with a delegation of City grandees to China this week as Labour seeks closer economic links with Beijing as part of its quest for growth.
With the outlook increasingly rocky at home after a run of soft economic data, the chancellor is sorely in need of a positive story to tell.
Continue reading...Sebastian Gorka says letting people in prison camps return to Britain would benefit the ‘special relationship’ with US
British nationals being held in Syrian prison camps for fighting on behalf of Islamic State should be allowed to return to the UK, Donald Trump’s incoming counter-terrorism chief has said.
Any country that wants to be a “serious ally” to the United States should commit to the international fight against the extremist group by repatriating its citizens, according to Sebastian Gorka.
Continue reading...Organization said paper’s refusal ‘outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth’, choosing ‘silence over accountability’
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization that advocates for peace, said on Monday the group cancelled a planned advertisement in the New York Times in response to the paper refusing to allow it to refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.
“The refusal of The New York Times to run paid digital ads that call for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza is an outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth,” said Joyce Ajlouny, general secretary for the AFSC, in a press release. “Palestinians and allies have been silenced and marginalized in the media for decades as these institutions choose silence over accountability. It is only by challenging this reality that we can hope to forge a path toward a more just and equitable world.”
Continue reading...Brazilian officials also ask tech giant to clarify whether it intends to implement changes in country within 30 days
The decision by the social media giant Meta to end factchecking in the United States is “bad for democracy”, Brazil’s newly appointed communication minister, Sidonio Palmeira, said on Wednesday.
Meta’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stunned many with his announcement on Tuesday that he was pulling the plug on factchecking at Facebook and Instagram in the US, citing concerns about political bias.
Continue reading...Family seeks to show a united front as French minister condemns ‘shameful’ celebrations of his demise
The death of Jean-Marie Le Pen looked likely to reignite rivalries in his family over who is the rightful heir to the far-right political dynasty, as the French government condemned as “simply shameful” crowds of people who took to the streets to celebrate the politician’s demise.
Marine Le Pen, daughter of the co-founder and leader of the far-right National Front party, which she has rebranded as the anti-immigration National Rally, on Wednesday paid tribute to her father, who died the previous day at the age of 96.
Continue reading...Geir Pedersen tells security council the HTS administration has great opportunities but also risks making missteps
A credible process leading to a new transitional government involving all strands of Syrian society is the best way for the country’s caretaker administration to secure a smooth lifting of sanctions, the UN special envoy Geir Pedersen has told the UN security council.
Giving his assessment of how the government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, was meeting its commitment to inclusiveness, Pedersen said it had tremendous opportunities but also risked making missteps.
Continue reading...The boy and his mother as well as dozens of others were rescued off the coast of Lanzarote, Spain
A baby boy has been born on a small, crowded boat carrying 60 people on the deadly Atlantic migration route from Africa to the Canary Islands.
The boat was spotted off the coast of Lanzarote on the feast of the Epiphany, the day when Spanish children receive presents from the Three Wise Men.
Continue reading...Over 30,000 ordered to evacuate as flames rip through coastal Pacific Palisades and other inland fires spread fast
Residents of Los Angeles have fled deadly wildfires engulfing the suburbs of the west coast megalopolis, as firefighters struggled to contain the flames overnight amid fears they would worsen on Wednesday morning.
California officials ordered more than 30,000 people to evacuate their homes as hillside blazes ripped through the coastal Pacific Palisades neighbourhood. People escaped by car and on foot.
Continue reading...The US president-elect has refused to rule out military force to take control. This is why it is important – and what Greenlanders think
Hours after his son Donald Trump Jr touched down in the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, on Tuesday in a Trump-branded plane, the US president-elect, Donald Trump, held a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where he refused to rule out using military force to make Greenland part of the US, and threatened to impose “very high” tariffs on Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory, if it gets in his way.
Continue reading...Sala, who had been held since 19 December, greeted by family members and Italian PM at Rome airport
Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist who was held in solitary confinement for almost three weeks in Iran, has returned home after being freed from prison.
A plane carrying the 29-year-old landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Wednesday afternoon, where she was greeted by family members and politicians including the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
Continue reading...Sánchez accuses X owner of inciting hatred as country marks 50 years since start of its return to democracy
Pedro Sánchez has hit out at Elon Musk and his allies for “openly attacking our institutions, inciting hatred and openly calling for people to support the heirs of nazism”, saying the politics of division, disinformation and hatred risk ushering in a new age of authoritarianism.
Speaking in Madrid on Wednesday as Spain prepares to mark the 50th anniversary in November of the death of General Franco and the country’s subsequent return to democracy, the Spanish prime minister said hard-won, basic freedoms could not, and should not, be taken for granted.
Continue reading...Airline seeking €15,000 in damages over ‘inexcusable’ behaviour it says forced plane to divert to Portugal
Ryanair is suing a passenger it claims disrupted a flight between Dublin and Lanzarote, seeking €15,000 (£12,500) in damages to cover expenses incurred when the plane was diverted to Portugal.
The airline said on Wednesday it had filed proceedings in Dublin’s circuit court against the passenger, whose behaviour on the flight last April it described as “inexcusable” and “completely unacceptable.”
Continue reading...The film about Mexico has just one main actor who is Mexican, and Mexicans say it’s heavy with stereotypes and treats violence with frivolity
A musical about a Mexican cartel boss who fakes their death, transitions and is reborn as a heroine searching for the forcibly disappeared is sweeping international film awards, but prompted amusement and outrage in Mexico.
Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard, has been largely praised by international critics, though some noted it risked trivialising extremely sensitive issues. It scooped the jury prize at Cannes before winning four Golden Globes on Sunday, including those for best musical or comedy and best non-English language film.
Continue reading...Sales of fizzy drink from London hoped to raise money and send a message to big firms ‘investing in armed trade’
Gaza’s healthcare is on the brink of “total collapse”, according to the UN, because of the targeting of hospitals by Israel. While it is still impossible to say how much time and money it will take to rebuild, one Palestinian activist has plans to piece one small part of it back with the help of a soft drink.
Osama Qashoo, the creator of Gaza Cola, hopes to use profits from his Coca-Cola alternative, recently launched in London, to rebuild al Karama hospital, which used to stand in northern Gaza. “It’s been reduced to rubble for no just reason, like all of these hospitals in Gaza,” according to the 43-year-old film-maker, human rights advocate and, now, fizzy-drink maker.
Continue reading...Syrians are suspicious after allegations of complicity with the brutal Assad regime during 14 years of civil war
The UN special envoy for Syria will urge the security council to back a transition to a pluralist democratic Syria, but faces resistance within the country. The interim government fears the lifting of sanctions will be tied to excessive demands imposed by the west, with suspicion of the UN deeply embedded after what are seen as its failures during 14 years of civil war.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s de facto leader, has told Gulf and western states that his group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), long ago transformed itself from a Salafi jihadi group in Idlib province to a technocratic force willing to accommodate all Syrians.
Continue reading...US treasury accuses Antal Rogán, a close aide of leader Viktor Orbán, as key to ‘system of corruption’
The United States has imposed sanctions on a senior member of the Hungarian government for alleged corruption, in a move which Budapest said it would challenge as soon as Donald Trump takes office.
The US treasury accused Antal Rogán, a close aide of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, of using his role to secure financial benefits for himself and his political allies.
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