Category Archives: World News

Kim Jones opts for ceramic cats and classics at Dior Paris menswear show

Posted on by

The designer homed in on staples for the show, without losing a sense of adventure or playfulness

The Dior menswear designer Kim Jones has gained a reputation as a somewhat prolific collector of art and rare books. His homes are peppered with pieces by Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol, and he is the owner of the largest collection of Virgina Woolf books and letters in the world – 21,000 pieces and counting. So it’s not surprising the aesthete enjoys melding the world of art with his other great love, fashion.

For his latest spring/summer 2025 collection that he showed in Paris on Friday afternoon Jones worked with the South African ceramicist Hylton Nel. The octogenarian is best known for his plates, pots, figures and vases featuring whimsical illustrations and satirical text.

Continue reading...

‘All day you hear bombs’: on Israel’s northern border as war with Hezbollah looms

Posted on by

Doctors prepare underground hospital units, people flee their homes and in rural kibbutz tension hangs in the air

Beneath the 800-bed Galilee medical centre in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya, treatment is being conducted in an underground complex beneath the hospital.

About 7km from the border with Lebanon, a frontier visible from the hospital’s car park and already under threat from Hezbollah’s missiles and explosive drones, the doctors are aware that in the event of an escalating war their facility will be on the frontline.

Continue reading...

One man’s desperate search for wife as more than 1,000 hajj pilgrims die in extreme heat

Posted on by

Hoda Nagib and her husband had walked 20km in the baking sun in Saudi Arabia while on Mecca pilgrimage

Hoda Nagib and her husband had walked 20km in the baking sun in Saudi Arabia when she told him that she needed to rest. The couple, who are in their 60s, had just scaled Mount Arafat, along with thousands of other white-robed pilgrims on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, where temperatures as high as 51.8C have been recorded in the shade in recent days.

Nagib’s husband left her to perform a ritual known as the stoning of the devil. When he returned she had disappeared, their neighbour Walaa Roshdy explained.

Continue reading...

Shutting Afghan women out of key UN conference to appease Taliban ‘a betrayal’

Posted on by

Group allegedly demanding Afghan participation in Doha meeting this month be limited to men and that women’s rights be excluded from the agenda

Excluding Afghan women from an upcoming UN conference on Afghanistan would be a “betrayal” of women and girls in the country, say human rights groups and former politicians.

The Taliban are reportedly demanding that no Afghan women be allowed to participate in the UN meeting in Doha starting 30 June, set up to discuss the international community’s approach to Afghanistan, and that women’s rights are not on the agenda.

Continue reading...

Second Canadian scientist alleges brain illness investigation was shut down

Posted on by

Exclusive: Prof Samuel Weiss said in leaked email that government halted efforts to tackle mystery illness

A senior Canadian federal scientist has alleged that the government shut down an investigation into a mystery brain illness in New Brunswick that he believes may have affected 350 people.

He is the second federal scientist to accuse the government of deliberately halting the investigation and to say that the caseload is higher than the government has acknowledged.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: EU to open enlargement talks with Ukraine and Moldova next week – as it happened

Posted on by

Countries in the 27-nation bloc formally approve the launch of accession negotiations on Tuesday

A member of Russia’s lower house of parliament said law enforcement authorities need to do more to protect civilians from ex-convicts who have returned home from fighting in Ukraine.

Nina Ostanina, a Communist Party deputy who has been sanctioned by Western countries over Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, told the gazeta.ru newspaper in an interview that violent crimes involving decommissioned soldiers “will be even more numerous” if authorities do not act.

Continue reading...

Olaf Scholz questioned at Progressive Governance Summit – as it happened

Posted on by

German chancellor and LSE professor Lea Ypi speak on ‘freedom, peace and progress’ at event chaired by Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, said at the Progressive Governance Summit that globalisation is a benefit for world development.

There must be an answer to the question why the most lucky countries in the world have “right-populist movements and unrest,” he said.

Continue reading...

Namibia high court overturns law banning gay sex

Posted on by

Victory for LGBTQ+ campaigners who say ban contributes to discrimination and violence by police

Namibia’s high court has overturned a law that criminalised gay sex in a victory for LGBTQ+ campaigners after a number of setbacks in the battle for rights in African countries in recent years.

Namibia inherited a law banning “sodomy” and “unnatural offences” when it gained independence from South Africa in 1990. While the ban was rarely enforced, activists said it contributed to discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, including violence by the police.

Continue reading...

Roberto Baggio injured in armed burglary at home in Italy

Posted on by

Ex-footballer reportedly struck on the head with butt of a gun and detained in a room while Italy game was on TV

The Italian football legend Roberto Baggio was robbed and beaten at gunpoint in his home on Thursday while watching the Italy-Spain match in the European Championship with his family.

A group of at least five armed individuals forcibly entered the villa in Altavilla Vicentina, located in northern Italy, at 10pm local time.

Continue reading...

Yazidi survivors of Sinjar massacre alarmed by Iraq’s move to close camps

Posted on by

A decade after tens of thousands of Yazidis escaped an Islamic State attack many fear return to a home in ruins

The Iraqi government has been accused of making the survivors of the Sinjar massacre fear for their future once more, almost a decade after the murderous Islamic State campaign that forced tens of thousands of people to flee from their homes.

In January, the Iraqi council of ministers set a deadline of 30 July to close 23 displacement camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. The camps are home to about 155,000 internally displaced people (IDP), mostly Yazidis, who were slaughtered, kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery in their thousands at the height of the violence in northern Iraq in 2014.

Continue reading...

New Zealand woman takes boyfriend to disputes tribunal because he didn’t take her to the airport

Posted on by

Woman claims boyfriend breached ‘verbal contract’ by not picking her up, causing her to miss her flight

A New Zealand woman has taken her long-term boyfriend to a disputes tribunal for breaching a “verbal contract” by failing to take her to the airport, resulting in her missing a flight to a concert and forcing her to delay her travel by one day.

The woman told New Zealand’s disputes tribunal that she had been in a relationship with the man for six and a half years until the disagreement arose.

Continue reading...

Charges dropped for Columbia students arrested at pro-Palestinian protests

Posted on by

Manhattan prosecutors decline to pursue charges against dozens of students who occupied building in April protest

Dozens of pro-Palestinian student protesters arrested in April after occupying and barricading a building at Columbia University in New York City have had all criminal charges against them dropped, Manhattan prosecutors said at a court hearing.

The hearing at the Manhattan criminal courthouse came seven weeks after Columbia administrators called in hundreds of armed and heavily armored police officers to the university’s campus in a high-profile law-enforcement response that was broadcast live on national news channels.

Continue reading...

Cyprus stresses neutrality after Hezbollah threat over Israel war

Posted on by

Officials say Cyprus is ‘pillar of peace’ amid shock at warning it could become a target for Lebanese group

Cypriots have reacted with shock after threats from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that Cyprus could become a target if it allows Israel to use its territory in any conflict between the two sides, who diplomats fear are on the brink of a fully fledged war.

Despite the EU expressing unreserved support for its easternmost member, it was clear on Thursday that the Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s warning had set off alarm bells in Nicosia where officials insisted the island republic remained a “pillar of peace” in an otherwise volatile region.

Continue reading...

Donald Sutherland, Don’t Look Now and Hunger Games actor, dies aged 88

Posted on by

The prolific actor appeared in more than 190 films and TV shows and was a vocal anti-war activist

Donald Sutherland, whose acting career spanned six decades and included starring in such highly acclaimed films as Don’t Look Now, M*A*S*H and The Hunger Games, has died aged 88.

He died in Miami after a long illness, confirmed by his representatives.

Continue reading...

Jews ‘questioning their future in France’ amid fears about rise in extremism

Posted on by

Alleged rape of girl, 12, in suspected antisemitic attack contributing to ‘very difficult climate’ as election looms

Many Jewish people are “questioning [their] future in France”, a community leader has said, after a 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped in a suspected antisemitic attack and fears deepen about the rise of extremism before a parliamentary election this month.

“The climate is very, very difficult for Jews,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (Crif), said on Thursday. “People are very, very worried about the future,” he said. “People are, I would say, questioning the future in France.”

Continue reading...

Outgoing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte wins race to head Nato

Posted on by

Rutte’s appointment comes as Ukraine faces pressure from Russian bombardment in eastern regions

The outgoing Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, has won the race to become the next head of Nato at a perilous moment for the western alliance, after his only rival withdrew his bid.

The long-serving Dutch leader is expected to be confirmed formally as Nato’s secretary general in the coming days and take over when the incumbent head, Jens Stoltenberg, steps down on 1 October after nearly a decade in charge.

Continue reading...

Russian-American woman on trial for treason over $50 pro-Ukraine donation

Posted on by

Ksenia Karelina was detained in January during a trip to visit family and faces up to 20 years in prison

A Russian American ballerina who lives and works in Los Angeles has gone on trial for treason over an alleged donation of $50 to a pro-Ukrainian charity, in the latest court case to raise tensions between Washington and Moscow.

Ksenia Karelina, 32, was detained by police in the city of Yekaterinburg in late January while on a trip to visit her family in Russia.

Continue reading...

IDF transfers powers in occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants

Posted on by

Transfer to officials led by far-right Bezalel Smotrich removes legal checks on settlement expansion

The Israeli military has quietly handed over significant legal powers in the occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants working for the far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich.

An order posted by the Israel Defense Forces on its website on 29 May transfers responsibility for dozens of bylaws at the Civil Administration – the Israeli body governing in the West Bank – from the military to officials led by Smotrich at the defence ministry.

Continue reading...

Spanish government takes legal action to shut down Franco foundation

Posted on by

Governing socialists say FNFF fails to comply with legislation that forbids any attempt to glorify regime

Spain’s socialist-led government has begun legal action to shut down a group that exists to promote and preserve the legacy of Gen Francisco Franco, the dictator who ruled the country for almost 40 years.

In a statement on Thursday morning, Spain’s culture minister, Ernest Urtasun, said he had initiated judicial proceedings to have the National Francisco Franco Foundation (FNFF) dissolved because of its failure to comply with legislation that forbids any attempt to glorify the Franco regime.

Continue reading...

DS Smith’s £5.8bn takeover by US rival going ahead despite competition

Posted on by

Merger with International Paper moving at ‘absolutely full steam’ in face of separate interest from Brazil’s Suzano

The boss of the FTSE 100 company DS Smith has said its £5.8bn takeover by a US rival is going at “absolutely full steam”, despite concerns it could be derailed by another packaging sector merger.

Miles Roberts, DS Smith’s chief executive, said merger work with International Paper was “going very well” and that he definitely expected the deal to complete.

Continue reading...