Storied Titian painting found at London bus stop after theft goes to auction

Work by 16th century master is expected to fetch between £15m and £25m when it goes on sale at Christie’s

A highly coveted painting by the Renaissance master Titian that was stolen in 1809 then again in 1995 – after which it was discovered in a plastic bag at a London bus stop – is being put up for auction in July.

The Venetian painter is believed to have created Rest on the Flight into Egypt in 1508 when he was barely 20. Painted on a 2ft wide wooden panel, the painting depicts the Virgin Mary cradling Jesus as an infant with Joseph looking on.

Continue reading...

Russia accused of ‘deliberate’ starvation tactics in Mariupol in submission to ICC

Lawyers say strategy of denying food and services to people in Ukrainian city during siege could amount to war crime

Russia engaged in a “deliberate pattern” of starvation tactics during the 85-day siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in early 2022, which amounted to a war crime, according to a fresh analysis submitted to the international criminal court.

The conclusion is at the heart of a dossier in the process of being submitted to the ICC in The Hague by the lawyers Global Rights Compliance, working in conjunction with the Ukrainian government. It argues that Russia and its leaders intended to kill and harm large numbers of civilians.

Continue reading...

Kuwait building fire kills at least 49 Indian workers

More than 50 people also injured in fire, which broke out in a six-storey building housing foreign workers

At least 49 people, all Indian nationals, have been killed in a fire which swept through a building housing foreign workers in Kuwait.

More than 50 others were injured in the blaze, which broke out in the six-storey building south of Kuwait City at dawn on Monday.

Continue reading...

Les Républicains leader vows to stay on despite revolt over Le Pen alliance plans

Éric Ciotti was thought to have locked party’s headquarters, where colleagues were to meet in bid to oust him

Éric Ciotti, the leader of France’s mainstream rightwing party, Les Républicains, has vowed he will stay in his job despite key members of his party voting unanimously to oust him over his proposed alliance with the far right.

Ciotti was believed to have been holed up in his office on Wednesday after locking members out of his party’s Paris headquarters amid a mass revolt over his call for an alliance with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.

Continue reading...

Bear shreds seats then dozes off after breaking into Canadian woman’s car

Black bear apparently opened the vehicle by lifting door handle with its mouth, after breaking into same car last year

After a string of vehicle break-ins in a north Canadian town, local residents have identified the culprit: a black bear with a taste for upholstery foam.

Awoken by a noise near midnight on 11 June, Kayla Seward, who lives in the Ontario township of Larder Lake, went outside to investigate – and found the sleepy black bear locked inside her car.

Continue reading...

Swiss lawmakers reject climate ruling in favour of female climate elders

Co-president of the KlimaSeniorinnen says declaration is betrayal of older women

Swiss politicians have rejected a landmark climate ruling from the European court of human rights, raising fears that other polluting countries may follow suit.

A panel of Strasbourg judges ruled in April that Switzerland had violated the human rights of older women through weak climate policies that leave them more vulnerable to heatwaves. Activists hailed the judgment as a breakthrough because it leaves all members of the Council of Europe exposed to legal challenges for sluggish efforts to clean up carbon-intensive economies.

Continue reading...

Russian warships arrive in Havana in visit seen as show of strength

Four vessels, including nuclear-powered submarine and frigate, greeted by sparse crowd upon arrival in Cuba

A fleet of Russian warships has arrived in the bay of Havana, in a visit seen as a show of strength amid tensions with the west over support for Ukraine.

Four vessels, including the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan and the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, entered Havana Bay early on Wednesday, where they offered a 21-gun salute that was reciprocated from the battlements of La Cabaña, the fortress where Che Guevara once had his office.

Continue reading...

Spain publishes list of art seized during civil war

Culture ministry hopes to help people reclaim family property plundered by Franco regime

Spain’s culture ministry has published a list of more than 5,000 items plundered by the Franco regime – including paintings, sculptures, jewellery, furniture and religious ornaments – to help people reclaim their family property almost a century after it was taken for safekeeping following the outbreak of the civil war.

The inventory, which is part of the government’s efforts to bring “justice, reparation and dignity” to the victims of the conflict and the subsequent dictatorship, was posted online on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Hamas has proposed ‘unworkable’ changes to ceasefire plan, Blinken says – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Israel-Gaza war coverage here

Israel’s military has issued a statement saying that it continues to operate in the central Gaza Strip and in the Rafah area. It claims it is carrying out “intelligence-based, targeted operations” and to have “eliminated a number of armed terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters.”

It says that “Over the past day, the Israeli air force struck and dismantled over 30 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military structures.”

Continue reading...

EU to put tariffs of up to 38% on Chinese electric vehicles as trade war looms

Move, to be applied provisionally from July, would trigger duties of more than €2bn a year

The EU has notified Beijing that it intends to impose tariffs of up to 38% on imports of Chinese electric vehicles, triggering duties of more than €2bn (£1.7bn) a year and a likely trade war with China.

The tariffs will be applied provisionally from next month in line with World Trade Organization rules, which give China four weeks to challenge any evidence the EU provides to justify the levies on imported EVs.

Continue reading...

Emmanuel Macron defends snap election and calls for moderate parties to unite against far right – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

Macron is now speaking about economic goals.

Speaking at a press conference, Emmanuel Macron said that in Sunday’s vote in the European election citizens have expressed their concerns and difficulties. We must bring a democratic response, he said.

Returning to the sovereign people is, in my opinion, the only republican decision in this context.

Do we think that (Republicans party leader) Mr. Ciotti - and The Republicans who follow him - who up until now explained that the ruling majority was too lax and that we needed to rein in our public spending faster, would govern effectively with the (far-right) National Rally, whose program has been independently costed at about 100 billion euros a year for our taxpayers?

We must, first and foremost, continue relentlessly to act for greater security and (state) firmness, and implement the laws that have been passed, like our European texts, to reduce illegal immigration.

Continue reading...

Remaining British judges urged to resign from Hong Kong’s top court

The three British judges still on territory’s top bench under pressure to quit after two others stepped down last week

Pressure is increasing on the last remaining British judges who sit in Hong Kong’s top court to resign, after two senior justices stepped down last week because of the “political situation” in the former British colony.

Jonathan Sumption and Lawrence Collins resigned as non-permanent overseas judges from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal on Thursday. Collins cited the “political situation in Hong Kong” in a brief statement about his departure.

Continue reading...

Macron urges French parties to unite against far-right National Rally

President warns against ‘spirit of defeatism’ as country prepares for snap vote to clarify far-right surge in support

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has urged all parties to form an alliance against Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and resist the “spirit of defeatism” after he announced a surprise snap election in response to the far-right’s large gains in European elections.

With the far right at a historic high and the French political class plunged into uncertainty with less than three weeks until the first round of the legislative vote, Macron said he had dissolved parliament and called the election in order to hold back “extremes”.

Continue reading...

G7 leaders head to Italy for summit as Ukraine and Russia top the agenda

US wants show of strength with planned sanctions for helping Russia, but group will also discuss migration, Middle East and AI

A dramatic expansion of entities exposed to US sanctions for helping the Russian economy and an EU-led $50bn loan to ease the financial burden on Ukraine will be at the centre of discussions at a summit of the leaders of wealthy G7 nations in Puglia, Italy, starting on Thursday.

The leaders, facing unprecedented challenges from discontented electorates, will be under heightened pressure to provide concrete results as their three days of discussion range across an interlinked agenda encompassing the war in Ukraine, migration, Africa, the Middle East, the climate crisis and harnessing artificial intelligence (AI).

Continue reading...

Ugandan oil pipeline protester allegedly beaten as part of ‘alarming crackdown’

Stephen Kwikiriza is one of 11 campaigners against EACOP targeted by authorities in past two weeks, rights group says

A man campaigning against the controversial $5bn (£4bn) east African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) is recovering in hospital after an alleged beating by the Ugandan armed forces in the latest incident in what has been called an “alarming crackdown” on the country’s environmentalists.

Stephen Kwikiriza, who works for Uganda’s Environment Governance Institute (EGI), a non-profit organisation, was abducted in Kampala on 4 June, according to his employer. He was beaten, questioned and then abandoned hundreds of miles from the capital on Sunday evening.

Continue reading...

Wreck of Shackleton’s ship Quest found, last link to ‘heroic age of Antarctic exploration’

The vessel, which sank off the coast of Canada in 1962, was used by the explorer on his final voyage to the continent

The wreck of the ship on which renowned Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton died has been found off the coast of Labrador, Canada, searchers have announced.

Locating the Quest – a schooner-rigged steamship which sank on a 1962 seal hunting voyage – represents a last link to the “heroic age of Antarctic exploration”, said search leader John Geiger.

Continue reading...

Israel and Hamas have both committed war crimes since 7 October, says UN body

Parallel reports describe serious crimes during Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza

A UN investigation has accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on and since 7 October, the date of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.

The allegations were contained in two parallel reports prepared by a commission of inquiry formed in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories, chaired by the former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.

Continue reading...

Hezbollah fires big salvo of rockets at Israel after senior commander killed

Attack in apparent retaliation for killing of Taleb Abdallah, Lebanese group’s most senior official to die in hostilities

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has launched its biggest salvo of rockets at Israel since the war in Gaza began in retaliation for the killing of a senior field commander, bringing the two sides closer to all-out conflict.

An Israeli airstrike on the village of Jouaiya in southern Lebanon late on Tuesday night killed three Hezbollah operatives as well as Taleb Abdallah, the most senior commander to be killed since hostilities began eight months ago.

Continue reading...

Pop singer Kevin Jonas documents skin cancer treatment

Jonas Brothers star revealed he has had surgery for basal cell carcinoma, advising followers to get moles checked

Pop singer Kevin Jonas, a member of chart-topping trio the Jonas Brothers, has received treatment for skin cancer.

In an Instagram video, the 36-year-old singer, guitarist, actor and reality TV star said he had been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma.

Continue reading...

Rare birds at risk as narco-gangs move into forests to evade capture – report

Cocaine traffickers have put two-thirds of Central America’s key habitats for threatened birds under threat, study finds

Cocaine consumption is threatening rare tropical birds as narco-traffickers move into some of the planet’s most remote forests to evade drug crackdowns, a study has warned.

Two-thirds of key forest habitats for birds in Central America are at risk of being destroyed by “narco-driven” deforestation, according to the paper, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Continue reading...