Italy’s Alpine cliff and cave rescue corps find items belonging to Aziz Ziriat as search continues
Items belonging to a British hiker who has been missing in the Dolomites since New Year’s Day have been found as the search for him continues.
Sam Harris, 35, and Aziz Ziriat, 36, from London, last sent messages home on 1 January and the pair did not check in for their flight home on 6 January. Friends and relatives have travelled to Italy.
Continue reading...Polling for far-right insurgent and its extreme policies is rising but other parties have closed ranks against it despite their weak popularity
Germany’s far-right AfD party has signed off on its manifesto before next month’s critical election, proposing a series of deeply controversial policies on everything from migration to education as the campaign for a new government in Europe’s powerhouse formally kicked off.
The party, founded in 2013, endorsed the far-right concept of “re-migration” into its programme, threatening the mass deportation of migrants if it came to power.
Continue reading...Ulf Kristersson says ‘hostile intent cannot be ruled out’ as increased surveillance follows suspected cable sabotage
The Swedish prime minister has said that his country is neither at war nor at peace as he announced that Sweden would be sending armed forces into the Baltic Sea for the first time as part of increased surveillance efforts amid a spate of suspected sabotage of undersea cables.
The country announced it will contribute up to three warships and a surveillance aircraft to a Nato effort to monitor critical infrastructure and Russia’s “shadow fleet” as the alliance tries to guard against sabotage of underwater infrastructure.
Continue reading...Riyadh meeting also discussed keeping pressure on Syria’s new leadership to meet commitment to inclusive transition
Ministers from 17 Middle East and western countries have met in Riyadh to discuss how to speed aid to the new Syrian government while keeping pressure on the caretaker leadership to meet its commitment to run an administration representative of all religions and ethnic groups.
The meeting on Sunday came as protesters in Syria called on the west to move faster on lifting economic sanctions, and so persuade more refugees to return from Europe and the states surrounding the country.
Continue reading...Somalia severed relations over sea access agreement Ethiopia signed with separatist region of Somaliland
Somalia and Ethiopia have agreed to restore diplomatic representation in their respective capitals, more than a year after Somalia severed ties over a sea access agreement landlocked Ethiopia signed with the separatist northern Somali region of Somaliland.
In a joint statement after an unexpected visit by Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, both countries committed to “restore and enhance bilateral relations through full diplomatic representation in their respective capitals”.
Continue reading...Verdict of crimes against humanity for kidnap of mixed-race children could pave way for wider justice, activists say
A historic court ruling that found Belgium guilty of crimes against humanity during its colonial rule of central Africa has been hailed as a turning point that could pave the way for compensation and other forms of justice.
Belgium’s court of appeal ruled last month that the “systematic kidnapping” of mixed-race children from their African mothers in Belgian-ruled Congo, Rwanda and Burundi was a crime against humanity. The case was brought by five women who were removed from their Congolese mothers as small children between 1948 and 1953, and who now live in Belgium and France. Each was awarded €50,000 (£42,000) in damages.
Continue reading...Diplomats have advised the UK prime minister to have a face-saving response just in case he comes low down on the list at the inauguration
Donald Trump may invite populist rightwing leaders from Europe such as Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to the White House before Keir Starmer, senior UK diplomats believe.
Downing Street and the Foreign Office are eagerly pressing for the prime minister to be at the head of the traditional “beauty parade” of overseas leaders who are called to see the new president in the days after the inauguration on 20 January. Representations are being made via the UK embassy in Washington.
Continue reading...Coach en route from Berlin to Polish city of Szczecin ended up on its side near Prenzlau, north-east of German capital
A bus accident on a motorway in northeastern Germany on Saturday left two people dead and another four seriously injured, police said.
The accident happened on an exit from the A11 motorway that leads to a car park close to an interchange near Prenzlau, north-east of Berlin, German news agency dpa reported. Seven people were slightly injured.
Continue reading...Rescue services treat 100 more people for shock or stress after collision in tunnel leading to central train station
Two trams collided in Strasbourg in eastern France on Saturday, causing dozens of injuries, though none critical, authorities said. The accident took place during the afternoon in a tunnel leading to the city’s central train station.
An additional 100 people, though uninjured, were assessed for shock or stress, said René Cellier, director of the Bas-Rhin fire and rescue service. Emergency services deployed 130 firefighters, 50 rescue vehicles and established a wide safety perimeter.
Continue reading...Washington Post reporter says he never made comments to James Comer published in the congressman’s new book
The Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward forcefully denied making statements attributed to him by James Comer, the Republican chair of the powerful House oversight committee, in which Woodward supposedly said Joe Biden was financially corrupt.
“The statements attributed to me in what is apparently his book are false,” Woodward said. “I made none of those statements he attributes to me. I repeat none, and not even in a paraphrased form.”
Continue reading...Chancellor’s mission to Beijing weighted with greater expectations
Rachel Reeves hailed a new era of “respectful and consistent future relations with China” as pressure grew on the embattled chancellor to deliver on her government’s central promise to fire up UK economic growth.
After meeting China’s vice-premier, He Lifeng, in Beijing, Reeves said Britain’s relationship with the world’s second largest economy would be “frank and open on areas where we disagree”, while stressing it would be pragmatic in “finding opportunities for safe trade and investment”.
Continue reading...From bashing Keir Starmer to promoting the AfD, the X owner is not shy about intervening
A limited – at best – understanding of the continent of Europe and its component countries has not prevented the world’s richest man from intervening in the domestic politics of several of them, as well as attacking the EU itself.
Here we take a brief look at some of the occasions on which X owner Elon Musk has used his position as proprietor of one of the world’s largest social media platforms to meddle in the internal affairs of sovereign democratic states outside the US.
Continue reading...Joe Stone says authorities ‘trying everything’ to find Aziz Ziriat after body of Sam Harris discovered on Wednesday
A close friend of a British hiker who has been missing in the Dolomites since New Year’s Day has said “there is an acceptance that it won’t be good news” as search efforts continued.
Sam Harris, 35, and Aziz Ziriat, 36, from London, last sent messages home on 1 January and the pair did not check in to their flight home on 6 January. Friends and relatives have travelled to Italy.
Continue reading...Strategic city fell into control of RSF, which has been accused of genocide by the US, in December 2023
Sudan’s military and its allies have taken back a strategic city from the rebel Rapid Support Forces, officials said.
The recapture of Wad Madani, the capital of Gezira province, took place more than a year after it fell to the RSF. Wad Madani had previously been a haven for displaced families in the early months of the war.
Continue reading...Western ‘psychedelic renaissance’ is partly to blame for dwindling supplies of peyote, which produces mescaline
Aldous Huxley wrote about the spiritual visions he had while taking the drug mescaline in The Doors of Perception, while Hunter S Thompson wrote of driving at 100mph while under the influence of it in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
But now a growing number of western spiritual seekers dabbling in psychedelics are accused of causing a shortage of the plant that produces mescaline.
Continue reading...Edmundo González, widely believed to have won July election, gives address after autocrat sworn in for third term
The man widely believed to be the real victor of last year’s presidential election in Venezuela has accused Nicolás Maduro of staging a coup and “crowning himself dictator” after the South American autocrat claimed another six years in power.
Maduro, a former union leader who has governed since 2013, in increasingly authoritarian fashion, was sworn in for a third term on Friday, despite claims that he stole the election from the actual winner, the retired diplomat Edmundo González.
Continue reading...Alliance of groups from across France call for measures to make crossings safer after 77 deaths recorded in 2024
More than 70 organisations from across France willcome together on Saturday to protest in Calais about UK policies to try to stop people crossing the Channel.
At least 77 people died trying to cross the Channel in 2024, the highest number since crossings began in 2018. Non-governmental organisations that monitor these deaths believe the total figure last year was even higher, with 89 deaths at the UK-French border of people attempting to reach the UK.
Continue reading...Recording of flight data ceased four minutes before Jeju Air crash that killed 179 people, says transport ministry
Flight data and cockpit voice recorders on the Jeju Air plane that crashed in South Korea in December, killing 179 people, stopped recording about four minutes before the airliner hit a concrete structure at Muan airport, the transport ministry said.
Authorities investigating the disaster, the worst plane crash on South Korean soil, plan to analyse what caused the black boxes to stop recording, the ministry said.
Continue reading...Palisades and Eaton fires start coming under control as fierce winds ease but forecasters predict another red flag warning for Monday
Here are some of the latest images coming in from Los Angeles via the news wires.
Weather forecasters in Los Angeles are expecting fast, dry winds to return towards the end of the weekend, threatening to fuel the devastating wildfires.
There are areas where everything is gone. There isn’t even a stick of wood left. It’s just dirt.
Continue reading...US president moves to shield roughly 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans against Trump administration
The Biden administration on Friday extended temporary humanitarian protections for about 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans living in the US, in an effort to shield those groups from an incoming Trump administration that has promised to deport them.
The decision in the dying days of Joe Biden’s presidency came after immigrant advocates and lawmakers urged the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary protected status (TPS), designed to protect immigrants from being deported to countries that are engulfed in disaster or conflict.
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