Message came after northern city of Ghent posted tips for recycling the conifer as a dish
At a time when most people have probably polished off their holiday leftovers, Belgium’s food agency has issued a surprising seasonal health warning: don’t eat your Christmas tree.
The message on Tuesday came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s northern Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table.
Continue reading...In ‘potentially trailblazing’ decision, European court of human rights finds country engaging in illicit deportations
The European court of human rights has found Greece guilty of conducting “systematic” pushbacks of would-be asylum seekers, ordering it to compensate a woman forcibly expelled back to Turkey despite her attempts to seek protection in the country.
In a judgment described as potentially trailblazing, the Strasbourg-based tribunal awarded the complainant damages of €20,000 (£16,500), citing evidence that the frontline EU state was engaging in the illicit deportations when she was removed.
Continue reading...President-elect has pledged to ‘make Greenland great again’ as Danish PM says autonomous territory is ‘not for sale’
Donald Trump Jr touched down in Greenland on Tuesday, hours after his father reiterated his interest in taking control of the Arctic autonomous territory, pledging to “make Greenland great again”.
After arriving in the Greenlandic capital in a Trump-branded plane, the US president-elect’s son told a waiting crowd in the Nuuk airport arrivals hall – some wearing red Make America Great Again caps – that he was “very excited to be here”. It was, he said, “a little colder here than it is in Florida”, adding that his father “says hello to everyone in Greenland”.
Continue reading...Herbert Kickl’s move could pave way for anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin Freedom party to govern country
The leader of Austria’s anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin Freedom party has said he intends to invite the mainstream centre-right party for coalition talks, potentially paving the way for the far right to rule the country for the first time since the second world war.
Herbert Kickl, whose party won the most votes in September’s election, was tasked with building a ruling coalition by the Austrian president on Monday after the collapse of talks between mainstream parties aimed at forming an alliance that would have blocked the Freedom party (FPÖ).
Continue reading...Linguistics professor says London dialect is most likely to be spoken in Essex, but aspects have traversed the globe
The cockney dialect, as associated with the late EastEnders icon Dame Barbara Windsor, may not be as prevalent in today’s London, but it remains possibly the most influential English dialect across the world, according to academic research.
No longer the preserve of those born within earshot of the Bow Bells in the City of London, today cockney is more likely to be spoken in Essex.
Continue reading...UN Human Rights Office adds that 2,200 were injured and nearly 1,500 kidnapped as international mission struggles
More than 5,600 people were reported killed in Haiti last year, the UN has said, as an international mission led by Kenya struggles to contain rampant gang violence.
The number of killings increased by more than 20% compared with 2023, according to the UN Human Rights Office. More than 2,200 people were reported injured and nearly 1,500 kidnapped, it said.
Continue reading...Germany will elect a new Bundestag on 23 February. Find out who is ahead in opinion polls and what coalitions are possible
Germany is preparing for a general election to the Bundestag, the lower house of its parliament, on 23 February, after its “traffic-light” coalition of social democrats, liberals and greens collapsed. The country’s electoral system is highly proportional, so polls give a good indication of what shape of government might be possible after the election.
Continue reading...Campaigners welcome move but say success depends on enforcement and global agreement on a treaty
Thailand has banned plastic waste imports over concerns about toxic pollution, as experts warn that failure to agree a global treaty to cut plastic waste will harm human health.
A law banning imports of plastic waste came into force this month in Thailand, after years of campaigning by activists. Thailand is one of several south-east Asian countries that has historically been paid to receive plastic waste from developed nations. The country became a leading destination for exports of plastic waste from Europe, the US, the UK and Japan in 2018 after China, the world’s biggest market for household waste, imposed a ban.
Continue reading...Former paratrooper led National Front party for decades and courted controversy, being repeatedly fined for contesting crimes against humanity
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right National Front party, who sent shock waves through the country when he made it to the second round of the presidential election in 2002, has died aged 96.
The former paratrooper, who led the party from 1972 to 2011, was repeatedly convicted over comments about the Holocaust, which he once dismissed as “merely a detail of history”.
Continue reading...Comments by Bruno Retailleau, who is known for his hardline views, comes as country marks decade since attack that killed 12 people
The threat of a terrorist attack on France is being fuelled by social media and has never been greater, the country’s interior minister has said, 10 years after gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper.
Speaking on the anniversary of the massacre at the paper’s offices, Bruno Retailleau said French intelligence had foiled nine planned attacks last year – three targeting the Olympic Games – and the country “could be hit tomorrow”.
Continue reading...Shunxing 39 was briefly detained by coastguard on Friday on suspicion of dragging anchor over cable running to US
Taiwanese authorities are investigating a Chinese-owned vessel that is suspected of damaging an undersea internet cable, causing limited disruption.
The Cameroon-registered vessel Shunxing 39 was briefly detained by Taiwan’s coastguard on Friday on suspicion of dragging its anchor over an international subsea cable north-east of the island. The cable runs to the US and is co-owned by several international companies.
Continue reading...First real-world test finds approach has higher detection rate without having a higher rate of false positives
The use of artificial intelligence in breast cancer screening increases the chance of the disease being detected, researchers have found, in what they say is the first real-world test of the approach.
Numerous studies have suggested AI could help medical professionals spot cancer, whether it is identifying abnormal growths in CT scans or signs of breast cancer in mammograms.
Continue reading...His protracted refusal to quit as PM could even result in the demise of Canada’s ‘natural governing party’
Justin Trudeau’s decision to resign as prime minister has jolted his ailing Liberal party, kicking off a leadership race that could determine the future – or the demise – of Canada’s “natural governing party”.
On a frigid Monday morning, Trudeau said that while “every bone in my body tells me to fight”, a procedural standstill in parliament, as well as his dismal polling numbers, meant there was no path forward to contest a fourth term as leader.
Continue reading...Fast-food company decides to scale back plans after 2023 US supreme court ruling and conservative backlash to DEI
Four years after launching a push for more diversity in its ranks, McDonald’s is ending some of its diversity practices, citing a US supreme court decision that outlawed affirmative action in college admissions.
McDonald’s is the latest big company to shift its tactics in the wake of the 2023 ruling and a conservative backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Walmart, John Deere, Harley-Davidson and others rolled back their DEI initiatives last year.
Continue reading...Major resettlement reduces population in US detention facility in south-eastern Cuba to just 15 people
The United States has sent 11 Yemeni detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention center to Oman, the Pentagon said on Monday, in a major resettlement that nearly halves the detention facility’s remaining number of prisoners.
The released men include Tawfiq al-Bihani, who had been cleared for transfer since 2010; Khalid Qassim, a long-term hunger striker who has spoken about spending most of his adult life in Guantánamo; and Hassan bin Attash, who was captured in a security raid in Pakistan in 2002.
Reuters contributed reporting
Continue reading...President-elect to be sentenced on Friday over conviction stemming from money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels
Donald Trump on Monday lost a bid to put off his sentencing on Friday for his criminal conviction stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.
Citing both presidential immunity and the demands of Trump’s impending January 20 inauguration as the 47th US president, his lawyers on Monday morning said judge Juan Merchan’s intention not to penalize Trump was “of no moment”.
Continue reading...Authorities now have access to cockpit dialogue from Azerbaijan Airlines plane that went down on Christmas Day
Brazil’s air force has extracted the data from two black box recorders belonging to a crashed Azerbaijan Airlines plane that Baku claims was downed by Russia on Christmas Day, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.
The Brazilian-made Embraer 190 crash-landed in Kazakhstan after being diverted from a scheduled landing in the Chechen capital, Grozny, in southern Russia. Azerbaijan believes the plane was shot down by Russian air defences, which Moscow says were operational in the area at the time.
Continue reading...Young adults living in states likely to ban abortion obtained tubal sterilizations and vasectomies in months after ruling
In the months after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, permanent contraception in the form of tubal sterilizations and vasectomies surged among young adults living in states likely to ban abortion, new research released on Monday found.
Compared to May 2022, when the opinion overturning Roe leaked, August 2022 saw 95% more vasectomies and 70% more tubal sterilizations performed on people between the ages of 19 and 26, according to the study, which was conducted by researchers at the George Washington University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan.
Continue reading...US secretary of state says he is confident agreement can be reached in renewed push before Donald Trump takes office
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging closer towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal that could bring the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip to an end amid reports of optimism among decision makers.
The latest round of negotiations intended to broker a lasting truce in the 15-month-old conflict resumed in Qatar on Sunday. Hamas said on Monday that it had given mediators a list of 34 Israeli captives seized during the group’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war, who could be freed as part of the “first phase of a prisoner exchange deal”.
Continue reading...CSI 300 blue-chip stock index also trades weakly, hitting its lowest point since September
China’s currency hit a 16-month low on Monday, despite efforts by the central bank and stock exchanges to soothe investor worries about impending US tariffs under a Donald Trump presidency.
The tightly controlled yuan reached 7.3301 per US dollar, its weakest level since September 2023. It has routinely hit multi-month lows since Trump won the US election, promising massive tariffs on Chinese imports.
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