Students’ union calls for sanctions over posts on social network that have also contained homophobic abuse
The French Union of Jewish Students has called for sanctions against people who have written antisemitic and homophobic comments about France’s new prime minister, Gabriel Attal, on the social network X.
Attal, 34, who was appointed by the president, Emmanuel Macron, this week, is France’s youngest prime minister and also the first out gay politician in the job.
Continue reading...Despite leading lavish lifestyles, some monarchs are influencing people to make greener choices
When Prince Frederik takes the throne on Sunday, the Danish crown will pass from his mother, Queen Margrethe II, a monarch who has cast doubt on the fact that human pollution is heating the planet, to one who feels bound by duty to call for stronger action on climate breakdown.
“I think it’s important for me to have a message for other people,” he told the Financial Times in 2010 after a trip to the melting Arctic with the heirs to the Norwegian and Swedish thrones, “to convince the broader population there are changes happening and that we are making the change.”
Continue reading...Joe Biden says he ‘will not hesitate to direct further measures’ to protect international waterways after attacks on Red Sea shipping
The US and the UK launched air and missile strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, aimed at halting attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Washington and London announced overnight.
Joe Biden, the US president, said American and British forces, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, were involved in the attack, striking at least 60 targets in 16 locations around Yemen.
Continue reading...Laser-sensor technology reveals network of earthen mounds and buried roads in rainforest area of Ecuador
Archaeologists have uncovered a cluster of lost cities in the Amazon rainforest that was home to at least 10,000 farmers about 2,000 years ago.
A series of earthen mounds and buried roads in Ecuador was first noticed more than two decades ago by archaeologist Stéphen Rostain. But at the time, “I wasn’t sure how it all fit together,” said Rostain, one of the researchers who reported on the finding in the journal Science on Thursday.
Continue reading...Assessment comes despite claims by Rishi Sunak that Rwanda is safe when making case for asylum policy
The government has admitted that Rwanda still has “issues with its human rights record” despite claims by Rishi Sunak that it is a safe country.
Documents released on Thursday said that “while Rwanda is now a relatively peaceful country with respect for the rule of law, there are nevertheless issues with its human rights record around political opposition to the current regime, dissent and free speech”.
Continue reading...Guayaquil eerily quiet as armed forces patrol in wake of stunning wave of arson, bombings and prison riots that killed as many as 15
Ecuador’s largest city has been transformed into a virtual ghost town by a stunning wave of criminal violence that prompted the South American country’s recently elected president to declare his country was in “a state of war”.
On Thursday, the streets of Guayaquil – a normally teeming port city of about 3 million residents – remained eerily quiet after a succession of arson attacks, car bombings, shootings and prison riots in different parts of the country claimed as many as 15 lives.
Continue reading...Former South Carolina governor, boosted by Chris Christie’s exit, has hopes of seizing second in Iowa caucuses from Ron DeSantis
The former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley emerged from the last televised debate before the Iowa caucuses clearly Donald Trump’s strongest challenger for the Republican presidential nomination, boosted by the withdrawal of Chris Christie, the only explicitly anti-Trump candidate to register significantly with voters.
Voting begins in Iowa on Monday, before New Hampshire stages its primary a week on Tuesday. Haley has closed on Trump in New Hampshire and has hopes of seizing second place in Iowa at the expense of the rightwing Florida governor, Ron DeSantis.
Continue reading...German chancellor condemns ‘fanatics with assimilation fantasies’ after reports about AfD meeting
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has urged democrats to stand together against “fanatics with assimilation fantasies” after it emerged that politicians from the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party had discussed a “masterplan” for mass deportations in the event of the party coming to power.
The far-right meeting, involving members of the AfD, the head of the Identitarian Movement and neo-Nazi activists, took place last November at a countryside hotel on the outskirts of Potsdam.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch’s annual report highlights politicians’ double standards and ‘transactional diplomacy’ amid escalating crises
Human rights across the world are in a parlous state as leaders shun their obligations to uphold international law, according to the annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
In its 2024 world report, HRW warns grimly of escalating human rights crises around the globe, with wartime atrocities increasing, suppression of human rights defenders on the rise, and universal human rights principles and laws being attacked and undermined by governments.
Continue reading...Deputy leader of UN agency for Palestinian refugees says situation in territory is ‘full-time emergency’
Southern Gaza is turning into a “pressure cooker”, where the majority of people – faced with dwindling food, inadequate water sanitation, overcrowding and a crumbling hospital service – want to flee, the deputy director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said.
Scott Anderson of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), who is engaged in daily negotiations to gain Israeli permissions for aid convoys to enter and move around Gaza, said it was in “a full-time emergency” and just six of the 21 planned convoys to the north of the territory had been granted access since January despite a UN security council resolution in December calling for relief to be stepped up.
Continue reading...Second recent case involving allegations of missing body parts from Alabama prisoners involves man whose brain was removed
A man who died in the custody of Alabama’s corrections department was reportedly returned to his family without his organs, including his brain.
The news, which broke earlier this week, is the second recent case involving allegations of missing body parts from people in Alabama prisons. The US prison system has been widely criticized for its poor treatment of inmates.
Continue reading...MPs in his own cabinet are against move, while powerful Orthodox church fears it could lead to dismantling society
The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, appears to be facing one of his most daunting challenges yet after a pledge to legalise same-sex marriage ignited fierce debate in the Orthodox Christian country.
Throwing his weight behind an issue still prone to provoke extraordinary emotion, not least among his own MPs, Mitsotakis acknowledged he would have to use his skills of persuasion to push through the reform as opposition mounted within his centre-right New Democracy party.
Continue reading...Case opens in The Hague with judges shown pictures and video as evidence of alleged genocide
Israel has shown “chilling” and “incontrovertible” intent to commit genocide in Gaza, with full knowledge of how many civilians it is killing, the UN international court of justice in The Hague has heard, at the opening of a case Israel has described as baseless.
South Africa, which has brought the case, alleged “grave violence and genocidal acts” by Israel on the first morning of the two-day hearing, amid a febrile atmosphere outside the court in The Hague. It called on the judges to order an immediate ceasefire.
Continue reading...Consumer price index exceeds economists’ expectations as Fed weighs when to start cutting borrowing costs
Inflation ticked higher in the United States last month as the Federal Reserve weighs the latest stage of its battle against price growth.
The headline consumer price index increased at an annual pace of 3.4% in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 3.1% in the previous month, and exceeding economists’ expectations of about 3.2%.
Continue reading...Secret service agents allegedly beat up Nikola Sandulović after he apologised for crimes against ethnic Albanians
The family of a Serbian opposition leader who was allegedly beaten up while in detention by the country’s secret service say he has been left partly paralysed by the attack.
In an assault that has fuelled fears about the future of democracy in the country, Nikola Sandulović’s family say he was taken from his home on 3 January after making an apology for crimes committed by Serbs against ethnic Albanians during the Kosovan war of independence in 1998 and 1999.
Continue reading...International Court of Justice will hear complaint brought by South Africa, which is asking for urgent ‘provisional measures’
A legal hearing into the war in Gaza opens in The Hague on Thursday as the international court of justice (ICJ) hears arguments alleging that Israel is committing genocide in the territory.
South Africa, which has brought the case, is asking the UN court to act urgently “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the genocide convention, which continues to be violated with impunity”.
Continue reading...Resolution calling for cessation of attacks on shipping vessels by Yemen’s Houthis adopted despite abstentions from Russia and China
The UN security council has called for an immediate end to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, adopting a resolution despite abstentions from Russia and China.
The resolution also called on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated vehicle carrier linked to an Israeli businessman that the group commandeered on 19 November, along with its 25 crew.
Continue reading...Andrzej Duda’s remarks escalate battle for rule of law with new government and come as politicians convicted of abuse of power begin hunger strike
Poland’s president has said he will not rest until two politicians from the opposition nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party – both on hunger strike – are freed from prison, in a further dramatic escalation in the new government’s battle to restore the rule of law.
“I will not rest in the fight for a fair and just Polish state,” the president, Andrzej Duda, who is closely aligned with PiS, declared on Wednesday. “I won’t be scared. I will act legally, in accordance with the constitution and the law – as before.”
Continue reading...Ex-New Jersey governor, only candidate to attack Trump, heard on hot mic predicting Nikki Haley would get ‘smoked’ in primary race
The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, he announced on Wednesday evening.
“It is clear to me tonight that there is not a path to win the nomination,” he said at a town hall in Windham, New Hampshire.
Continue reading...US and UK warships shoot down barrage of rockets, drones and cruise missiles fired at ships by Yemeni group
The US and the UK have warned “there will be consequences” after warships from both countries repelled a barrage of 21 Houthi rockets, drones and cruise missiles apparently fired at western warships in the Red Sea.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said further attacks by the Yemeni rebels on international shipping could prompt a western military response amid speculation that Washington could bomb military targets in an attempt to prevent future raids.
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