Buildings collapse, trapping residents, and fires break out but tsunami warning lowered after series of major earthquakes in Japan
The first reports of injuries are coming in from hospitals, including broken bones, but no fatalities have been confirmed so far.
Fires have broken out in what appear to be homes on the Noto peninsula.
Continue reading...‘I cried. And then I watched it back and cried again,’ says one as nation processes shock royal broadcast
It began like any other Danish New Year’s Eve. Martin Ebmark, a hotelier from the central town of Billund, was, “like everyone”, sitting watching the queen’s annual address on the television with his family.
He and his wife raised a toast to the queen, resplendent in a Cadbury-purple frock, “when she started talking about ‘the right time’. My wife turned to me and said, ‘she’s not doing what I think she’s doing! Is she?’ Then, she did it.”
Continue reading...Official says intense new phase of war to last at least six more months as country also prepares for Lebanon conflict
Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza but preparing for an intense campaign to continue there for “six months at least” as well as expanding preparations for a Lebanon war, a senior official has said.
There is growing international pressure to curb an offensive that has so far killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children. Even Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, which rejects calls for a ceasefire, has started pushing the government to scale back the ferocity of its attacks.
Continue reading...Iran security chief praises ‘brave actions’ of Houthi rebels who have targeted Israeli-linked vessels in shipping lane
Iran has rejected US and British calls to end its support for attacks by Houthi rebels on Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea and claimed the accusations were baseless interference as its navy dispatched a destroyer to the vital shipping lane.
The Alborz destroyer, operating as a military vessel of the 94th flotilla of the Iranian navy, crossed the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and entered the Red Sea on Monday. It came as Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council (SNSC), met Mohammed Abdulsalam, the Houthi spokesperson, praising the rebel fighters’ “brave actions” against “Zionist aggression”.
Continue reading...Russian president says Moscow will continue to strike ‘sensitive’ military targets in Ukraine and says war is turning in Russia’s favour. This live blog is closed
Volodymyr Zelenskiy vows to unleash ‘wrath’ on Russian forces in 2024. But the Ukrainian president’s new year’s address made almost no direct reference to the situation on the frontline or the limited success of a counteroffensive launched in June.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of New Year’s Day attacks. Five people have been killed in attacks on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region and the occupied eastern city of Donetsk.
Ukraine claims Russia has launched a ‘record number’ of attack drones. Ukraine’s Air Force said 87 out of 90 drones had successfully been shot down in the hours leading into New Year’s Day.
Vladimir Putin calls Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod ‘terrorist act’ that will ‘not go unpunished’. Russia’s president said it would continue to strike “sensitive” military targets in Ukraine.
The death toll following Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod has risen to 25, according to region’s governor. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Monday a four-year-old girl died from injuries sustained in the attack.
The death toll as a result of the attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod on 30 December has increased to 25, according to the region’s governor.
Continue reading...Giannini, nicknamed Tripolino, had said his secrets were light meals, no stress or smoking and taking each day as a gift
Italy’s oldest man, who credited “light meals and no stress” for his longevity, has died at the age of 111.
Tripoli Giannini, nicknamed Tripolino, died at his home in Cecina, near Livorno in Tuscany, on New Year’s Eve. He was the second-oldest man in Europe, after André Ludwig, a Frenchman who is 75 days older.
Continue reading...Blaze in Dublin comes less than fortnight after suspected arson attack on vacant Galway hotel earmarked for asylum seekers
Irish police have been investigating a second fire in less than a fortnight at a building local people reportedly believed would be used to accommodate asylum seekers.
The emergency services were called to the scene at the Ringsend area of Dublin in the early hours of New Year’s Eve.
Continue reading...Registrations open after country became first former Soviet-ruled nation to legalise gay marriage
Same-sex couples in Estonia are able to marry from New Year’s Day, in a milestone move people say brings the Baltic nation closer to its Nordic neighbours.
Estonia became the first former Soviet-ruled country to legalise gay marriage when the Riigikogu, Estonia’s parliament, voted in favour of marriage equality in June. A majority of 55 MPs voted for amending the Family Act, while 34 MPs voted against the bill in the 101-seat parliament.
Continue reading...Prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has accused 83-year-old of ‘sucking blood’ from poor people
The Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has been convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws in a trial decried by his supporters as politically motivated.
The 83-year-old, credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his microfinance bank, Grameen, has earned the enmity of Sheikh Hasina, the longtime prime minister, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from poor people.
Continue reading...Flight contained 303 Indians en route to Central American country whose light visa requirements have attracted US-bound travelers
The detention in France of a charter plane bound for Nicaragua has renewed attention on the Central American nation’s role as a springboard for migrants from across the world seeking to make their way to the United States.
The flight, which left the United Arab Emirates on 21 December with 303 passengers of Indian nationality, was grounded during a refueling stop after an anonymous tip-off alleging human trafficking.
Continue reading...New Year’s address made almost no direct reference to the situation on the 1,000-km front line or the limited success of a counteroffensive
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed in his New Year’s address to unleash “wrath” against Russian forces in 2024, saying Ukraine had become stronger as the war moves toward its second year.
But Zelenskiy’s slick 20-minute video message, delivered from his Kyiv office, made almost no direct reference to the situation on the 1,000-km (600-mile) frontline or the limited success of a counteroffensive launched in June.
Continue reading...Macron says Olympics will bring France a 2024 full of ‘pride’ and ‘hope’; some UK New Year’s Eve firework events cancelled due to weather
New Year’s Eve is a time of both looking forward, and of looking backward, so before it slips off into the distance, why not test your knowledge on what you can remember from 2023 with our news quiz? Probably best attempted earlier in the evening rather than later.
Do the quiz set by Will Dean: Barbie, Beatles and Bankman-Fried: how well do you remember 2023?
Continue reading...Heavy bombing continues, while Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has shown unparalleled ‘morality’ in its conduct in Gaza
At least 100 people have been killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours, as the three-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas rolls into the new year with no end in sight and only tentative Israeli government plans for discussing the day after the war is over.
The Hamas-run territory’s health authority said about 48 people were killed overnight on Sunday in heavy Israeli bombing of Gaza City, where pockets of fierce fighting are ongoing despite claims by the Israel Defense Forces that the north of the blockaded exclave is largely under Israeli operational control.
Continue reading...Monarch will step down on 14 January, the 52nd anniversary of her accession, and leave the throne to her son Frederik
The queen of Denmark has announced that she is to abdicate after 52 years on the throne.
Announcing the surprise news to the nation in her new year speech, Queen Margrethe II said she would step down on 14 January, the 52nd anniversary of her accession, leaving the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik.
Associated Press contributed to this report
Continue reading...Move aims to reduce pressure of thousands of daily visitors to Italian city and protect residents
Venice is to limit the size of tourist groups in an attempt to reduce the pressure of thousands of visitors crowding its squares, bridges and narrow walkways each day.
From June, groups visiting the Italian canal city will be limited to 25 people, or roughly half the capacity of a tourist bus, the city announced this weekend. The use of loudspeakers, popular among tour groups but “which can generate confusion and disturbances”, will be banned in the city and on nearby islands, officials said in a statement.
Continue reading...Officials in Democratic Republic of the Congo says Felix Tshisekedi has been re-elected with 73% of the vote
The president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, has won a second term in office with a landslide victory, according to provisional results, in a vote opposition leaders have dismissed as a “sham”.
Provisional results from the single-round presidential ballot, declared on Sunday by the country’s electoral commission, Ceni, showed Tshisekedi had won 73% of the vote.
Continue reading...Wave of drone and missile strikes that wounded dozens was retaliation for ‘terrorist attack’, says Moscow
Moscow has said the wave of drone and missile strikes that wounded at least 28 people in Ukraine’s second-biggest city late on Saturday was launched in retaliation for the “terrorist attack” on the Russian border city of Belgorod earlier the same day that reportedly killed 24 people.
Ukraine’s national police said on Sunday that at least six Russian missiles had reached Kharkiv on Saturday night, injuring more than two dozen people and hitting 12 apartment buildings, 13 residential houses, a hotel and a kindergarten.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
US Navy helicopters sank three of four small boats used by Iranian-backed Houthi militants to attack a merchant vessel in the southern Red Sea on Sunday, US central command wrote on X.
Responding to distress calls from the Maersk Hangzhou, helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely were said to have returned fire on the Houthi boats in self-defence and sank three of the vessels with no survivors.
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands gather in Sydney and Melbourne to enjoy spectacular fireworks displays
Australians turned out in their hundreds of thousands to see in the new year under a midnight sky lit up by fireworks.
In Sydney, crowds were abuzz and at maximum capacity as revellers crammed picnic rugs together across harbour foreshore vantage points. More than 8.5 tonnes of fireworks went up in smoke alongside 80,000 pyrotechnic effects to the sounds of jubilant cheers.
Continue reading...Joining court would allow investigation of Xi Jinping if he were to order act of war against Taiwan
Taiwan’s government is considering joining the international criminal court, in part to increase deterrence of a Chinese attack or invasion.
Supporters also say it would help universalise the international legal system, which has a low presence in Asia, and increase Taiwan’s global participation at a time when Beijing works to keep it as isolated as possible.
Continue reading...