Dani says his £26,000 salary is not high enough to sponsor his wife so she can join him in Britain
A police officer working in Manchester says he has been forced to quit his job after Rishi Sunak raised the salary threshold to sponsor his Italian wife to live in the UK in the post-Brexit immigration scheme.
Campaigners have warned that his tale of Brexit anguish is being repeated up and down the country in low-paid public sectors where many EU citizens work.
Continue reading...Strong winds and heavy rain trigger 230 weather-related events across the country, while Tropical Storm Gaemi nears Taiwan
Slovenia was hit by heavy rain and strong winds on Friday as a series of storms brought an abrupt end to a prolonged hot and dry spell.
More than 230 weather-related events including flooding and landslides have been reported across the country. The worst-hit regions were in the Gorenjska municipality of Preddvor, and in Koroška in the north, which experienced similarly devastating floods last August.
Continue reading...Thomas Portes accused of ‘putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes’ with remarks at protest against Gaza war
An MP for the radical-left France Unbowed party has sparked outrage after saying Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics and calling for protests against their presence.
Citing Israel’s war in Gaza, Thomas Portes told a pro-Palestinian gathering in Paris on Saturday: “We are just a few days away from an international event to be held in Paris, the Olympic Games. And I’m here to say that no, the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris. We have to use this deadline and all the levers we have to mobilise.”
Continue reading...African countries hailed for achievements, but UNAids says cases on the rise in other areas of the world
The majority of new HIV infections last year occurred in countries outside sub-Saharan Africa for the first time.
African countries have made swift progress in tackling the virus, with the number of infections in sub-Saharan Africa 56% lower than in 2010, a new report from UNAids said. Globally, infections have fallen by 39% over the same period.
Continue reading...Pro-democracy campaign group finds exports of goods to Russia, vital to its war efforts, roughly doubled in a year
Hong Kong has become a global trade hub for “the world’s most brutal regimes”, according to a report examining the city’s role in facilitating the flow of goods to countries under sanctions by the west, including Russia, Iran and North Korea.
A report published on Monday by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a campaign group, found that between 2021 and 2022, exports of semiconductors from Hong Kong to Russia roughly doubled to $400m (£310m), second only to shipments from mainland China. Semiconductors are vital to Russia’s war effort as they are a component in weaponry such as drones and cruise missiles.
Continue reading...Victims tell Guardian about widespread practice in war-torn Omdurman
Women struggling to survive in the war-torn Sudanese city of Omdurman say they are being forced to have sex with soldiers in exchange for food.
More than two dozen women who have been unable to flee fighting in Omdurman said that sexual intercourse with men from the Sudanese army was the only way they could access food or goods that they could sell to raise money to feed their families.
Continue reading...Case raises questions about complicity of western financial institutions in persecution of Chinese government critics
Two exiled pro-democracy Hong Kong activists have been blocked from accessing their pensions, depriving them of tens of thousands of US dollars of their savings and raising questions about the complicity of western financial institutions in the persecution of Chinese government critics.
Assets, including pension savings, belonging to Ted Hui, a former pro-democracy legislator who is now based in Australia, were frozen shortly after he fled from Hong Kong in December 2020. The assets are held by HSBC, a British bank.
Continue reading...President endorses Kamala Harris to lead Democratic ticket just four months before November election
Joe Biden has withdrawn from his presidential re-election race and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to take his place at the top of their party’s ticket, an extraordinary decision upending American politics that plunges the Democratic nomination into uncertainty just months before the November election against Donald Trump – a candidate Biden has warned is an existential threat to US democracy.
“While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter announcing his decision.
Continue reading...Polish prime minister Donald Tusk and UK PM Keir Starmer among US allies to pay tribute to US president’s decades of public service
Leaders from around the world have begun to react to Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election this year, endorsing vice-president Kamala Harris in the most unorthodox US presidential campaign in generations.
US allies largely offered tributes to Biden’s work over decades of government service, discussing his work as a partner in international security, without addressing the tense political debate still unfolding in the US.
Continue reading...Houthi military spokesperson says there will be ‘no red lines’ in response to Israel after airstrikes hit Hodeidah on Saturday, killing at least six people
In the months before the Israeli invasion, Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was a lifeline, a place where thousands sought shelter or scrabbled to raise funds to cross into neighbouring Egypt.
Now satellite images and social media video uploaded by Israeli soldiers stationed around the city show roads widened for armoured vehicles surrounded by total destruction, including buildings razed to the ground in the once bustling city.
Continue reading...Law allowing committee to fire staff for ‘supporting terror’ backed by education minister and national student union
Israel’s education minister and the country’s national union of students are backing a draft law to limit academic speech in the country, which the heads of leading universities have attacked as “McCarthyite” and fundamentally undemocratic.
The legislation, currently being debated in the Knesset, would give a government-appointed committee the power to order the firing of academic staff that it decides have expressed “support for terror”. If the universities refuse, their funding would be cut.
Continue reading...Houthi military says US ship in Red Sea also targeted after Israeli strikes on oil facilities and power station in Yemen
Israeli forces have said they intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthi militants in Yemen targeting the southern city of Eilat, in retaliation for a series of Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.
Meanwhile, forest fires engulfed parts of northern Israel after a barrage of rocket fire from Lebanon.
Continue reading...Court overturns ruling reserving 30% of government jobs for independence war veterans and their relatives
Bangladesh’s top court has scaled back the quotas on government jobs that led to widespread student-led protests and violent clashes that killed more than 100 people.
On Sunday afternoon the supreme court overturned a ruling that had reintroduced quotas for all civil service jobs, meaning that 30% were reserved for veterans and relatives of those who fought in the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971.
Continue reading...Move targeting those in city for less than 12 hours is latest measure from mayor to tackle effects of mass tourism
Barcelona’s mayor plans to raise the tourist tax for cruise passengers who visit the city for less than 12 hours as part of his continuing efforts to “tackle the consequences of mass tourism” in the Catalan capital.
Jaume Collboni, a member of the Catalan Socialist party, has announced a series of measures designed to reduce overtourism and improve the city’s housing situation since taking office last year.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Several sent home for slow fruit picking face debts as watchdog investigates alleged illegal fees
Indonesian workers who paid thousands of pounds to travel to Britain and pick fruit at a farm supplying most big supermarkets have been sent home within weeks for not picking fast enough.
One of the workers said he had sold his family’s land, as well as his and his parents’ motorbikes, to cover the more than £2,000 cost of coming to Britain in May and was distressed to find himself unemployed with few possessions.
Continue reading...2024 Games organiser Tony Estanguet tells how chats with British sporting legend Sebastian Coe have kept him on an even keel
It has to feel pretty weird. You’re in charge of the biggest event your country’s ever organised. You have worked on it to the exclusion, basically, of everything else in your life, for very nearly a decade. And now – it’s a week away.
“It’s a very strange feeling,” confirms Tony Estanguet, head of the 2024 Olympic Games organising committee. “I come from this small town in south-west France. My sport is a very minor one. It’s been … quite a ride. But here I am. And now, well, here we all are.”
Continue reading...Attack comes after Israeli fighter jets hit Houthi military targets in Yemen’s Hodeidah, killing three people and wounding 87
Three people were killed and 87 were wounded in Israel’s airstrikes in Hodeidah in Yemen, according to Almasirah TV.
Israel’s military said on Saturday there was no indication of a security incident in the Red Sea port city of Eilat after reports of explosions were heard there, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...Latest satellite imagery reveals new roads that appear designed to support the long-term presence of Israeli troops
In the months before the Israeli invasion, Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was a lifeline, a place where thousands sought shelter or scrabbled to raise funds to cross into neighbouring Egypt.
Now satellite images and social media video uploaded by Israeli soldiers stationed around the city show roads widened for armoured vehicles surrounded by total destruction, including buildings razed to the ground in the once bustling city.
Continue reading...Greek Cypriots in south wake to air raid sirens reminiscent of invasion while Turkish-occupied north celebrates
Cyprus has marked the landmark anniversary of 50 years of ethnic division amid markedly contrasting scenes: mourning in the south and celebration in the north.
At 5.20am Greek Cypriots in the internationally recognised south awoke to air raid sirens reminding them of the arrival of thousands of invading Turkish troops on the eastern Mediterranean island five decades ago. In the Turkish-occupied north, the milestone event was cause for joy, with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, flying in to attend a military parade and fly-past commemorating the “peace operation”.
Continue reading...Three reported killed and 87 wounded after oil depot and electrical installations hit
Powerful airstrikes rocked the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah a day after Israeli officials vowed revenge for a drone that struck Tel Aviv.
Airstrikes hit a refinery and electricity infrastructure, sparking a huge blaze. The Almasirah television channel, run by Yemen’s Houthi movement, reported late on Saturday that three people had been killed and 87 wounded in the strikes on the oil facilities.
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