Vulnerable birds deviating from migratory routes by up to 155 miles, which could affect breeding
Eagles that have migratory routes through Ukraine have shifted their flight paths to avoid areas affected by the conflict, researchers have found.
GPS data has revealed that greater spotted eagles not only made large detours after the invasion began, but also curtailed pitstops to rest and refuel, or avoided making them altogether.
Continue reading...Bim Afolami’s comments distance British government from protectionist moves by US
The UK cannot afford to give the “cold shoulder” to China, the City minister said on Monday, in comments that will distance the British government from the Biden administration’s protectionist crackdown.
Addressing financial services bosses at the City Week conference in London’s Guildhall, Bim Afolami said it was “crucial” to engage with strategic competitors such as Beijing, and that the UK risked losing control of its economic future if it failed to find common ground.
Continue reading...Lloyd Austin, speaking at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, praises troops’ courage in ‘hard and dangerous fight’. This live blog has closed
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, the Russian state news Tass agency reported on Monday.
It said the ministers were meeting to discuss the implementation of Russian-Chinese agreements reached during Vladimir Putin’s state visit to China last week, and events in Iran, whose president and foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Continue reading...Survivors of shipwreck that killed 600 people not ‘real smugglers’, say defenders, with inquiry into coastguard’s role also incomplete
Nine men accused of causing one of the deadliest shipwrecks to have taken place in the Mediterranean are “scapegoats” who should never have been prosecuted, defence lawyers have said, as their long-awaited trial opens in Greece.
The Egyptian suspects, who have been held in pre-trial detention since the 14 June disaster last year, are appearing in court in the southern city of Kalamata on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Experts say shift in direction, including on nuclear issue, is unlikely after death of president and foreign minister
In the immediate aftermath of the death of the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, and foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a helicopter crash on Sunday, Iran’s regional proxies lined up to offer their condolences.
Hamas mourned Raisi as an “honourable supporter” of the Gaza-based group. Hezbollah praised him as “a strong supporter, and a staunch defender of our causes … and a protector of the resistance movements”. Mohammed Abdulsalam, a spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthi rebels, said on X that Raisi’s death was a loss “for the entire Islamic world and Palestine and Gaza”.
Continue reading...Health update comes as country reels from assassination attempt and contends with political fallout
The Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, is in a stable condition and communicating after last week’s assassination attempt, doctors have said, as the country continues to grapple with the political fallout from the shooting.
On Monday, the FD Roosevelt hospital in Banská Bystrica said Fico’s conditiond was “stable”. “He is clinically improving, communicating and his inflammatory markers are gradually decreasing,” it said, adding: “The prime minister remains in our care.”
Continue reading...French forces launch operation on Sunday to regain access to parts of Nouméa and allow airport to reopen
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called a meeting of his defence and security council to discuss the deadly unrest in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
It is the third such meeting in less than week, the previous two having resulted in the decision to declare a state of emergency in the French territory and then to send reinforcements to help government forces on the ground restore order.
Continue reading...Ex-president’s jail sentence precludes him from standing for new MK party in decision that could affect general election results
South Africa’s highest court has ruled that former president Jacob Zuma cannot run for parliament in national elections on 29 May, the latest twist in the most competitive polls since the country’s first post-apartheid vote 30 years ago.
The constitutional court found that Zuma was ineligible to stand for election due to a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court in 2021, after he failed to appear before a corruption inquiry.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ads containing AI-manipulated images were submitted to Facebook by civil and corporate accountability groups
The Facebook and Instagram owner Meta approved a series of AI-manipulated political adverts during India’s election that spread disinformation and incited religious violence, according to a report shared exclusively with the Guardian.
Facebook approved adverts containing known slurs towards Muslims in India, such as “let’s burn this vermin” and “Hindu blood is spilling, these invaders must be burned”, as well as Hindu supremacist language and disinformation about political leaders.
Continue reading...Low pressure also expected to raise temperatures in eastern Canada and north-east US, while temperatures plummet in west
After a lull in recent weeks, storm season in the US has begun to ramp up again, with 100mph winds and tennis ball-sized hail hitting Kansas on Sunday. It has been a busy season so far in terms of severe storms, with late spring into early summer typically bringing the greatest risk for tornadoes across the plains and midwest. An area of low pressure moving in across the central US, combined with rich moisture streaming in from the Gulf of Mexico, will probably continue the threat of tornadoes and large hail across numerous states. On Tuesday in particular, this severe weather risk may extend from Oklahoma all the way up to the Great Lakes.
This setup of low pressure could lead not just to a large outbreak of severe weather across the US later this week, but also to a sharp temperature gradient across the US and Canada as the warm air is fed into higher latitudes. In eastern Canada and the north-eastern US, temperatures are likely to reach 10C above the average for the time of year. Cities such as Ottawa and Detroit could have daytime maximum temperatures of 30C by Wednesday.
Continue reading...Hundreds of Australian and New Zealand travellers are stuck in the French Pacific territory where protests and violence are preventing access to the airport
Hundreds of Australian and New Zealand tourists stranded in New Caledonia amid deadly unrest are anxiously waiting on French authorities to allow air travel out of the territory, as their governments stand by to bring them home.
French security forces are working to retake control of the highway to the international airport in New Caledonia, shuttered because of violent unrest in the French Pacific territory.
Continue reading...Lai Ching-te uses inauguration speech to push for peace in the region and says future of Taiwan important to future of the world
Lai Ching-te has been sworn in as Taiwan’s new president, urging China to “cease their political and military intimidation against Taiwan” and to keep the world free from the fear of more war.
Lai was inaugurated on Monday morning at the Japanese colonial-era presidential office in central Taipei, taking over from Tsai Ing-wen, whose eight years in power saw a deterioration in relations with Beijing.
Continue reading...Five years after her last companion died and the aquarium’s owner pledged to free her, Bella still languishes in a tiny tank amid shops
In the heart of Seoul, amid the luxury shops at the foot of the world’s sixth-tallest skyscraper, a lone beluga whale named Bella swims aimlessly in a tiny, lifeless tank, where she has been trapped for a decade.
Her plight is urgent, with campaigners racing to rescue her from the bare tank in a glitzy shopping centre in South Korea’s capital before it is too late.
Continue reading...This blog is closed. See all of our Taiwan coverage.
The Guardian’s Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin are at the inauguration in Taipei. They have this report:
It is a sea of bucket hats outside the Presidential Office.
Continue reading...While the number of Indian billionaires soars, growing unemployment has become a big problem for the BJP as it campaigns for a third term
It wasn’t even the real wedding, just the pre-wedding party. But that didn’t stop India’s richest billionaire, Mukesh Ambani, whose son is set to marry the daughter of a millionaire, from throwing an affair so ostentatious that no one could question just how wealthy they are.
The pop star Rihanna was paid about $8m to perform. The catering alone cost $25m and the final bill for the glittering soiree, held in March, reportedly came in at about $150m.
Continue reading...Rescuers struggle with search operation to find president and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian because of poor weather conditions
A helicopter carrying the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, and his foreign minister crashed on a fog-covered mountainside, with search and rescue teams rushing to the area as state media called for nationwide prayers.
State TV reported that the helicopter had been found on Sunday evening, well after dark, and quoted an official as saying that at least one passenger and one crew member had been in contact with rescuers.
Continue reading...Coup leader killed and 50 people, including Americans, arrested after men reportedly attacked presidency in capital Kinshasa
The leader of an attempted coup on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been killed and some 50 people including three American citizens arrested, a spokesperson for the Central African country’s army told Reuters.
Gunfire rang out around 4am in the capital Kinshasa, a Reuters reporter said. Armed men attacked the presidency in the city centre, according to spokesperson Sylvain Ekenge.
Continue reading...A country already in political transition could soon be forced to replace more than one leader
The Iranian helicopter crash comes at a time when the country, faced by unprecedented external challenges, was already bracing itself for a change in regime with the expected demise in the next few years of its 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In the country’s hydra-headed leadership where power is spread in often opaque ways between clerics, politicians and army, it is the supreme leader, and not the president, that is ultimately decisive.
Continue reading...Taliban says four arrested over attack at Bamiyan heritage site that killed three Spanish visitors and an Afghan
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack by gunmen in Afghanistan’s central Bamiyan province that killed three Spanish tourists on Friday.
The Taliban’s interior ministry spokesperson, Abdul Mateen Qani, said on Sunday that four people had been arrested over the attack. One Afghan citizen was also killed and four foreigners and three Afghans were injured in the attack, he added.
Continue reading...Le Pen, Orbán and Meloni rail against socialism and ‘massive illegal migration’ at ‘great patriotic convention’ in Madrid
International far-right leaders, including France’s Marine Le Pen, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Argentina’s Javier Milei, came together in Madrid to rail against socialism and “massive illegal migration” three weeks before hard-right parties are expected to see a surge in support in June’s European elections.
Sunday’s “great patriotic convention”, which was organised by Spain’s far-right Vox party, offered conservatives and far-right populists a chance to congregate and take aim at a variety of familiar targets, from the welfare state to “wokeness” and the agendas of Brussels-based bureaucrats.
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