Colombian singer to pay €7.3m fine instead of risking prison sentence in deal that ends Barcelona trial
The Colombian pop star Shakira has reached a settlement with prosecutors to avoid a trial in Barcelona over charges she failed to pay €14.5m (£12.7m) in Spanish income tax between 2012 and 2014.
As part of the deal, she accepted the charges and a fine of 50% of the amount owed, more than €7.3m.
Continue reading...Israel says Galaxy Leader is British-owned and describes seizure as an ‘escalation in Iran’s belligerence’
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”.
Houthi forces would “continue to carry out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against Gaza stops and the ugly crimes … against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop”, said a spokesperson for the group, Yahya Saree, in a statement on X.
Continue reading...The 41 workers have spent almost 200 hours inside the tunnel as fears for their health and safety mount
Indian officials have warned that 41 construction workers who have been stuck inside a collapsed tunnel for over a week could be trapped for several more days, as various rescue efforts have failed so far.
Fears for the health and wellbeing of the workers continued to mount, having spent almost 200 hours confined inside the dark tunnel cavity in the state of Uttarakhand.
Continue reading...Relative ‘shocked’ by advice for family members who crossed into Egypt to split temporarily and apply for reunification from Britain
Relatives of British citizens recently evacuated from Gaza and those waiting to return to the UK have criticised the government’s repatriation guidance, as UK officials continue to support nationals crossing into Egypt.
Ahmad Abou-Foul’s family safely crossed from Gaza into Egypt on 3 November. He said they were “shocked” after arriving in Cairo when UK immigration officers advised the individuals with British passports to return to the UK with their children, and once there, start a reunification process for their Palestinian spouses.
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Some protests aimed at MPs have “crossed the line from protest to intimidation”, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said, also speaking to Sky’s Trevor Phillips programme.
Asked about recent protests outside MPs’ offices calling for a ceasefire, PA Media reports she said:
I believe in the right to protest, I don’t believe in the right to intimidate.
Some of those protests, I believe, over the last few days have crossed the line from protest to intimidation. Protesting outside people’s homes, putting pressure on them in that way, I think it’s totally unacceptable.
We recognise, and I’m afraid this morning’s news confirms, that there is an absolutely tragic loss of life on both the Palestinian and the Israeli side. But I think it is important to remember this started with horrific murders on October 7, and if Hamas are hiding in these hospitals then Israel has to do something about it. I think we can all just hope this situation resolves itself as quickly as possible.
Continue reading...Carter, who was diagnosed with dementia in May, was fiercely loyal ally throughout husband’s long political career
Rosalynn Carter, wife of the 39th president Jimmy Carter, has died at the couple’s Georgia home aged 96.
Carter, who became one of the nation’s leading mental health advocates during and after her husband’s time in the White House, was diagnosed with dementia in May.
Continue reading...Victory for TV celebrity-turned politician catapults South America’s second-largest economy into an unpredictable future
Javier Milei, a volatile far-right libertarian who has vowed to “exterminate” inflation and take a chainsaw to the state, has been elected president of Argentina, catapulting South America’s second largest economy into an unpredictable and potentially turbulent future.
With nearly 99% of votes counted, the Mick Jagger impersonating TV celebrity-turned politician, who is often compared to Donald Trump, had secured 55.7% of the vote compared to Massa’s 44.2%.
Continue reading...Hundreds march through Keir Starmer’s constituency to protest against failure to back ceasefire
Some protests targeting MPs over their stance on the war in Gaza have “crossed the line from protest to intimidation”, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said.
Other MPs already voiced concern about their safety and that of staff ahead of a weekend on which more than 100 pro-Palestine events were planned across the UK as campaigners sought to put pressure on parliamentarians who failed to vote for a Scottish National party motion last week calling for a ceasefire.
Continue reading...Stewart, a Tory MP at the time, told activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei to ‘go back to Bahrain’ during row last year
A former Tory MP has said he will step down at the next general election after being found guilty of racially abusing an activist.
Bob Stewart, who surrendered the Tory whip and now sits as an independent in Beckenham, south London, was found guilty of telling Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei to “go back to Bahrain” during a confrontation in central London in December last year.
Continue reading...Agreement could involve limited ceasefire in Gaza Strip and release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails
Israel and Hamas appear to be edging towards a deal that would see the release of a significant number of hostages, possibly in return for a limited ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Senior US and Israeli officials, as well as the Qatari prime minister, all suggested an agreement was close on Sunday, although observers have cautioned that public statements during such negotiations are often misleading and any potential deal could easily collapse.
Continue reading...Israel says opening was discovered beneath floor of a garage within Gaza medical complex’s walls
The Israeli army has published video footage that it says shows the first solid evidence of a sophisticated Hamas tunnel network underneath Gaza City’s Dar al-Shifa hospital complex.
In a statement on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said troops operating near the in-patients building at al-Shifa found a booby-trapped pickup truck in a garage inside the medical complex’s walls. When it was destroyed in a controlled explosion, a tunnel was exposed beneath the floor of the garage, the IDF said, providing photographs.
Continue reading...Images of distressed families walking south have been evocative of what Palestinians call the catastrophe of 1948
Umm Ghadeer’s earliest memories are of the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948 in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland after the creation of Israel. She was three years old. Last month she was forced to abandon her home all over again, fleeing Shejaiya, a neighbourhood of Gaza City, after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.
“I cried very hard because I relived the experience of displacement when we fled our homes in 1948. We fled. Some people were walking on the streets, some in cars, some screaming, some crying. We lost so many people,” she said. “So many awful things happened in 1948. I am now scared of the same thing.”
Continue reading...UN agency visits al-Shifa hospital after raid by Israeli forces who allege it is used by Hamas as a command centre
Dar al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, has become a “death zone”, the World Health Organization has said, with a mass grave at the entrance and only 25 staff left to care for 291 seriously ill patients after orders from the Israeli army to evacuate the complex.
The WHO managed to access the medical centre in Gaza City on Sunday after it was raided by Israeli forces earlier this week. Israel alleged the militant group Hamas used al-Shifa as a command centre, identifying it as a key target in its military operation despite international outcry.
Continue reading...Black bicorne hat is one of 20 remaining that once belonged to French emperor, who famously wore them sideways
A two-cornered hat worn by Napoleon Bonaparte during his reign as French emperor has fetched a record €1.932m (£1.69m) at an auction in Paris.
The black bicorne beaver felt hat was initially estimated at €600,000-800,000. The price reached surpassed the €1.884m paid for another of Napoleon’s hats in 2014, also sold by the Drouot auction house, a spokesperson for the company said.
Continue reading...Man resembling Brazilian ex-president seemingly spotted on a jetski about 15 metres from distressed mammal
Federal police are investigating Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, for yet another suspected misdeed: “harassing” a humpback whale while taking a public holiday spin on his jetski.
Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental policies earned him the nickname “Captain Chainsaw” during a four-year administration characterised by soaring destruction of the Amazon. But the far-right ex-president’s latest suspected environmental offence reportedly occurred in the waters off Brazil’s south-eastern coastline near the town of São Sebastião.
Continue reading...Police were stumped when ‘crashed’ plane was found in British Columbia, but it was placed there last summer for rescue training
When a hunter in British Columbia stumbled upon the crumpled remains of an airplane fuselage on 3 November, he reported the grim findings to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Officers were dispatched to the remote crash site to survey the wreckage and concluded that the shell of the bush plane, with no motor, wings, doors or seats, was likely more than two decades old.
Continue reading...Colombian singer is accused of defrauding authorities of €14.5m and could face jail if found guilty
Shakira, the Latin Grammy-winning singer, is due in court in Barcelona on Monday on charges of defrauding the Spanish tax authorities of €14.5m (£12.7m).
The 46-year-old Colombian musician, who lives in Miami with her two children, could face up to eight years in jail and a €24m fine if found guilty.
Continue reading...It felt like 58.5C in Rio on Tuesday – and the soaring, indeed dangerous, temperatures are hitting the poorest hardest
The start of summer in the southern hemisphere is still a month away, but Brazil has already experienced its eighth heatwave of the year so far, as temperatures soar to dangerously high levels.
Large swathes of the country were put under red alert this week by Inmet, the national meteorological institute, which warned of risks to health “and even life” as temperatures stayed at least five degrees Celsius above average for more than five days.
Continue reading...PM’s speech at food summit comes as humanitarian crisis caused by Israel-Hamas war reaches crisis point
Leaders of some of Britain’s biggest aid charities are urging Rishi Sunak to use his opening speech at a global food summit in London on Monday to condemn Israel’s siege in Gaza, which they say is causing 2 million people to go hungry and taking 1 million children to the brink of starvation.
The charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Islamic Relief, say the UK has an obligation to speak out at the summit since private diplomacy is not working and Britain is the guardian of the key UN resolution that forbids starvation as a “weapon of war”.
Continue reading...Populist provocateur appears slight favorite over Peronist Sergio Massa as 35m Argentinians vote to choose new president
Argentina is teetering on the brink of an unpredictable new political era this weekend with an erratic far-right populist known as “El Loco” (the Madman) the slight favourite to become president of South America’s second-largest economy in Sunday’s election.
As polls opened on Sunday morning against a backdrop of soaring inflation and widespread poverty, analysts believed Javier Milei, a TV celebrity turned congressman, held a slender advantage over his rival, the finance minister, Sergio Massa, but said the result was too close to call.
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