Category Archives: World News

Former US informant pleads guilty to plotting Haitian president’s killing

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Dual Haitian-American citizen attended meetings in south Florida and Haiti ahead of the assassination and faces life imprisonment

A former confidential informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration has pleaded guilty to conspiring to assassinate President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti, whose killing in 2021 caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation.

Joseph Vincent, a dual Haitian-American citizen who lived in the US and attended meetings in south Florida and Haiti ahead of the assassination, is the fourth of 11 defendants in Miami to plead guilty. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on charges including conspiracy to kill and kidnap a person outside the US and conspiracy to provide material support and resources.

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‘Apocalyptic’ conditions in southern Gaza blocking aid, top UN official says

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Martin Griffiths says continuing offensive has ended any possibility of meaningful humanitarian operations

The UN’s top aid official has said the Israeli military campaign in southern Gaza has been just as devastating as in the north, creating “apocalyptic” conditions and ending any possibility of meaningful humanitarian operations.

Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said he was speaking on behalf of the entire international aid community in saying the continuing offensive had robbed aid workers of any significant means of helping the 2.3 million people of Gaza, other than to call for an immediate end to the fighting.

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Police in Greece investigate after tourists targeted in bedbug hoax

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Health ministry says posters in English outside apartment buildings in Athens were ‘absolutely false’

Greece’s health ministry is seeking police help against hoaxers who tried to scare foreign tourists out of short-term rental apartments in Athens by inventing a bedbug crisis.

A ministry statement said the posters stuck up outside apartment buildings in the city centre, festooned with fake ministry and Athens municipality logos, were “absolutely false”.

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Fears grow for hundreds of Rohingya refugees adrift for two weeks

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UN warns of possible tragedy unless people are rescued from two boats on Andaman Sea

About 400 Rohingya refugees have been adrift in two boats on the Andaman Sea for about two weeks, according to the United Nations, which called on regional governments to help rescue them.

The number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing by boats in a seasonal exodus – usually from squalid, overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh – has been rising since last year due to cuts to food rations and an increase in gang violence.

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UK taxpayers to bear extra cost over Rwanda treaty

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Ministers have given more than £140m to Rwandan government in hope of sending asylum seekers to east Africa

British taxpayers will bear extra costs after the signing of a treaty on the deportation scheme for asylum seekers with the Rwandan government, the home secretary has said, as he asserted that the government was not pursuing “cheap and quick popularity”.

The new agreement will mean that the UK will pay for British and Commonwealth judges to preside over a newly established appeals process as well as the costs of all legal fees from anyone sent to the central African country.

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Israel faces difficult phase of war with fighting in north and south Gaza

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Israeli forces pushing towards southern city of Khan Younis and engaged in battles for key urban areas in the north

As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they were pushing ahead with the second phase of the ground offensive against Hamas, towards the southern city of Khan Younis, it became clear they were still involved in intense combat to control substantial areas of northern Gaza.

Gen Yaron Finkelman, the head of the IDF’s southern command, said on Tuesday: “We are in the most intense day [of fighting] since the beginning of the ground operation in terms of Hamas terrorists killed, the number of encounters with the enemy and the volume of fire our forces use, both from the ground and the air. We intend to continue attacking.”

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EU expected to issue veiled warning to China over supply of cut-cost goods

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European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping at summit on Thursday

The EU is to tell China that its €400bn (£343bn) trade deficit is not sustainable long term amid fears that it will flood the bloc with subsidised electric cars, solar panels and medical devices, threatening European manufacturing and jobs.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, and Charles Michel, the European Council president, will meet Xi Jinping at a summit on Thursday, the second of its kind this year.

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Boston woman killed by shark attack while paddleboarding in Bahamas

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Woman was reported to have just gotten married and the man paddleboarding with her as her groom

A shark attacked and killed a Boston newlywed off the coast of the Bahamas on Monday, according to authorities and reports.

Local police said the woman, 44, was bit by a shark at about 11.15am in New Providence. The woman was paddleboarding with a man at the time of the attack, presumed to be her husband.

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Spanish cinema chain fined for banning customers who bring their own snacks

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Consumer rights group took action against Yelmo, which runs a nationwide cinema chain

Parents frazzled by entreaties for barrels of popcorn, otherwise law-abiding citizens sweating over the contraband sweets in their pockets, and anyone else sick of spending more on drinks and snacks than on cinema tickets can rest easy. If, that is, they live in certain parts of Spain.

The Basque Country’s consumer affairs department, Kontsumobide, has fined Yelmo, the huge Spanish cinema chain, €30,000 for refusing entry to customers who buy their food and drink outside its premises.

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It’s monstrous what we did, ex-wife of French serial killer tells court

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Monique Olivier describes how Michel Fourniret killed British student Joanna Parrish in Auxerre in 1990

The ex-wife of the French serial killer Michel Fourniret has described how he flew into a fury and beat a British student, Joanna Parrish, after discovering she had a boyfriend.

Monique Olivier, 75, said Fourniret then raped and strangled the 20-year-old and dumped her body in a river. She admitted that her role in helping him lure Parrish to her death was “monstrous … unforgivable”.

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Moody’s cuts China credit outlook to negative as economy slows

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Rating agency says Beijing may need to bail out local governments as property sector collapses

China’s ability to repay its government borrowing has been downgraded by the credit rating agency Moody’s, which said the ripple effects from a crisis in the property sector would undermine efforts to revive its flagging economy.

Moody’s warned that Beijing would need to bail out local and regional governments and state-owned enterprises that were struggling with rising debts, hampering efforts to boost investment and growth.

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People arriving in UK via irregular means ‘to be deported to Rwanda before election’

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Immigration minister accuses people crossing Channel in small boats of ‘breaking into the country’

People arriving in the UK via irregular means will be deported to Rwanda before the next general election, according to Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, as the home secretary, James Cleverly, arrived in the country to sign a treaty paving the way for the policy.

Jenrick, who has taken an increasingly rightwing stance and hinted at his frustration with Downing Street’s perceived inaction on migration, also ramped up the rhetoric, accusing people crossing the Channel in small boats of “breaking into the country”.

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Russia-Ukraine war: more Ukrainian children to be returned from Russia – as it happened

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This live blog is now close, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here

Vladimir Putin will make a one-day trip to both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia tomorrow, the Kremlin said.

The Russian president will hold talks focusing on bilateral relations, the war between Israel and Hamas and other international issues, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. Issues related to oil price caps will also be on the agenda, Peskov said. The Cop28 climate summit is taking place in Dubai in the UAE, but the Kremlin did not specify whether Putin would attend any related events.

On a snowy road next to Poland, Ukrainian lorry driver Vitaliy Zemyenko pondered the long journey ahead. It would take him nine hours to get through the Medyka border crossing. Over on the other side he would drop off a consignment of vodka. The problem was getting back.

“At the moment it’s taking a minimum of eight days to re-enter Ukraine,” he said. “That’s the best case scenario. Worst case is two weeks. This is a terrible situation”. The Poles, he added, wanted to stop Ukrainian drivers from operating in the European Union. “They don’t want us,” he said.

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YouTuber gets six months in prison for staging plane crash to make video

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Trevor Daniel Jacob, 30, sentenced for obstructing investigation after deliberately crashing his plane in California

A California YouTuber who authorities say deliberately crashed his plane and posted a video of it online was sentenced to six months in federal prison for obstructing the investigation by destroying the wreckage.

Trevor Daniel Jacob, 30, an experienced pilot and skydiver, pleaded guilty in June to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation. Jacob destroyed wreckage from the small single-engine plane that he crashed in Los Padres national forest in 2021, authorities say.

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‘The science compels: phase out fossil fuels’ – Mary Robinson responds after Cop28 row – live

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Former president of Republic of Ireland makes first comments since Sultan Al Jaber told her a fossil fuel phase out could mean ‘going back into caves’

Alok Sharma, an MP for the Conservative party in Britain and president of Cop26 that was held in Glasgow two years ago, has made some comments about Al Jaber’s presidency: “everyone should be questioned,” he says.

Environment ministers from Germany and Colombia have led an open letter calling for the inclusion of nature in the global stocktake outcome, which countries are negotiating at Cop28.

“The GST provides a critical moment to recognize the importance of just and inclusive means of implementation, and address the significant finance gap for nature-based solutions,” said Muhamad. “In particular, the involvement and respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities is critical, in addition to the urgent need to align financial flows to enable the transformations required to deliver the Paris Agreement goals.”

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Nigeria army drone strike accident kills at least 85 civilians

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Scores of civilians die in one of country’s deadliest military bombing accidents

A Nigerian army drone strike accidentally killed at least 85 civilians observing a Muslim festival in the north-west on Sunday, the country’s armed forces have admitted.

Villagers in Tudun Biri in the state of Kaduna had gathered for the Maulud celebration when at about 9pm they heard what sounded like an aeroplane followed by a huge explosion.

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Mount Marapi eruption: 23 people confirmed or presumed dead in Indonesia

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Rescuers find more bodies, after second eruption halted search for missing climbers on Monday

Rescuers searching the hazardous slopes of Indonesia’s Mount Marapi volcano found more bodies among the climbers caught by a surprise eruption two days ago, raising the number of confirmed and presumed dead to 23.

More than 50 climbers were rescued after the initial eruption on Sunday, and 11 others were initially confirmed dead. Another eruption on Monday spewed a new burst of hot ash as high as 800 metres (2,620ft) into the air and temporarily halted search operations.

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‘Charles’ or ‘skin rash’? Māori MPs’ oath of allegiance to king sparks translation debate

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At the opening of parliament, lawmakers for New Zealand’s Māori party used a word for Charles that can also be used to describe skin conditions

Māori party MPs have departed from the traditional oath of allegiance to King Charles III at the opening of New Zealand’s 54th parliament, sparking a debate about whether the Māori word they used to describe him meant “Charles” or “skin rash”.

As part of the formalities to open parliament, MPs must swear allegiance to New Zealand’s head of state, something Te Pāti Māori, a Māori political party, has long protested against. MPs can say the oath in either English or Te reo Māori.

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