Gérard Depardieu accused of rape by Spanish journalist and author

Ruth Baza, 51, said previous allegations against Depardieu provoked ‘flashes’ of memory of alleged 30-year-old assault

A Spanish journalist and author has filed a criminal complaint in Spain against Gérard Depardieu, claiming that the film star raped her nearly 30 years ago in Paris.

Ruth Baza, 51, told AFP she filed the complaint with Spanish police on Thursday, saying the alleged rape happened when she interviewed the actor in Paris on 12 October 1995, for the magazine Cinemania.

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Ex-Haitian senator gets life in prison for 2021 killing of country’s president

John Joel Joseph, an opponent of the late president’s party, is third of 11 suspects charged for plotting to assassinate Jovenel Moïse

A former Haitian senator has been sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to kill Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, an assassination which caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation.

John Joel Joseph is the third of 11 suspects detained and charged in Miami to be sentenced in what US prosecutors have described as a plot hatched in Haiti and Florida to hire mercenaries to kidnap or kill Moïse, who was 53 when he was shot dead at his private home near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on 7 July 2021.

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Zelenskiy and Putin each vow to press on to victory in Ukraine war

Ukraine president seeks to boost morale after difficult year as Russian opponent claims to hold initiative

The leaders of Ukraine and Russia have struck a defiant tone and vowed to reach their military goals as the war heads toward its third year.

Speaking in Kyiv during his end-of-year press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought to boost the domestic mood and maintain western support that has been stuttering in recent weeks.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy says army has asked for up to 500,000 more troops to be mobilised — as it happened

Ukraine’s president is speaking to the world’s media at an end-of-year press conference

Russian air defences downed a hostile drone near Moscow on Tuesday, the city mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has said. No casualties were reported.

Two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, had restricted flights, a measure often taken during drone attacks.

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‘It surprised the scientists’: Grindavík residents in limbo after powerful eruption

Grindavík residents had been preparing to spend Christmas back at home after being evacuated

Until just after 10pm on Monday, when the earth opened up and spat out an otherworldly 4km-long wall of lava, Sígrún Ísdal had been planning to spend Christmas at home in Grindavík with her family. Like many residents of the fishing town on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula, who were all evacuated on 10 November, she had been preparing to move back after more than a month spent in the limbo of temporary accommodation.

Ísdal, who works at Grindavík sports centre, had even been in the town briefly on Monday evening to pick up a few possessions, as residents have recently been allowed to do. “There was just good weather and I didn’t see anything,” she said.

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US announces naval coalition to defend Red Sea shipping from Houthi attacks

Egypt and Saudi Arabia notably absent from Operation Prosperity Guardian as more shipping companies forgo route

The US has announced the creation of an enhanced naval protection force operating in the southern Red Sea in an attempt to ward off mounting attacks from Yemen’s rebel Houthis on merchant shipping.

Britain said it would be among the countries participating but notable absentees were Arab nations Egypt and Saudi Arabia while analysts speculated that shipping would continue to be disrupted and attacks continue.

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Palestinian casualties in Gaza near 20,000 with nearly 2m people displaced

UK and Germany demand ‘sustainable ceasefire’ as Israel’s military campaign enters 11th week

Israeli forces killed 25 people in bombings in southern Gaza, hit a refugee camp in the north and raided one of the area’s last operating hospitals, as Palestinian casualties in the territory climbed towards 20,000.

The death toll from airstrikes and grim conditions for nearly 2 million people displaced from their homes with little access to food, clean water or sanitation is fuelling growing international anger, even among Israel’s close allies.

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Greece to legalise papers for thousands of migrants to counter labour shortage

Legislation comes at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment is fuelling far-right support across Europe

Thousands of migrants are to have their papers legalised in Greece as part of efforts to curb an acute labour shortage that is hitting key sectors of an otherwise resurgent economy.

In a move that has thrown his centre-right party into turmoil, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, pushed through legislation on Tuesday regularising the status of about 30,000 unregistered labourers.

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French couple lose court case over rare African mask worth millions

Couple sold mask to dealer for €150 in 2021 before it was sold to unidentified buyer for €4.2m

A French couple who sold an “extremely rare” African mask for €150 only to discover it was worth millions have had a request to cancel the artefact’s sale thrown out in court.

The couple, in their 80s, sold the wooden mask in September 2021 to a secondhand goods dealer as part of the sale of a number of antiquities including African artefacts that they had kept in their secondary home in southern France.

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Campaigners call on EU leaders to veto ‘costly and cruel’ changes to migration law

Human rights organisations demand ‘more access to legal aid, asylum, medical and social support for people in need’

Proposed changes to the EU’s migration laws risk weakening human rights and could leave the bloc with an “ill-functioning, costly and cruel system”, more than 50 human rights organisations have said as negotiations over the plans enter the final stretch.

In an open letter published on Monday, 57 organisations – describing themselves as “people who see and work with the stark consequences of political choices” – said the package of new laws would “mirror the failed approaches of the past and worsen their consequences”.

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Indian government accused of attack on democracy as 141 MPs suspended

Opposition politicians excluded from rest of winter session for protesting against parliament security breach

More than 140 Indian opposition politicians have been suspended from parliament, the largest number in history, after protesting against a recent security breach at the parliamentary premises.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government was accused of a direct attack on democracy and creating “anarchy” after 141 MPs from 11 different opposition parties, who sit in the lower and upper houses of parliament, were suspended for the rest of the winter session.

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Businessman who tried to buy Sheffield United accused of ‘elaborate’ fraud

US watchdog sues Dozy Mmobuosi for allegedly faking documents and making up companies out of ‘thin air’

A Nigerian businessman who appeared to be closing in on a takeover of the Premier League football club Sheffield United is being sued by the US financial watchdog for a fraud, in which he is alleged to have faked documents and made up companies out of “thin air”.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday it had filed charges against Dozy Mmobuosi, claiming he inflated his companies’ financial performance by hundreds of millions of dollars to defraud investors.

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DUP talks about post-Brexit trading have ended, Northern Ireland secretary says

Chris Heaton-Harris says it is time to restore devolved government, in comments that appeared to surprise DUP leader

Talks with the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) over post-Brexit trading arrangements have ended and it is time to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland secretary has said.

The announcement by Chris Heaton-Harris on Tuesday appeared to surprise and discomfit the DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who said the party still had concerns and that talks would continue.

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MPs clash in Commons as government urged to back instant Gaza ceasefire

Lib Dem MP Layla Moran describes desperate plight of relatives in Gaza after she was granted urgent question on situation

The Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has made an impassioned plea in the House of Commons for the government to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as she told of the desperate plight of relatives who had taken refuge in a church there.

Those inside the Holy Family parish in Gaza City were down to their last can of corn, she told the development minister, Andrew Mitchell, who will meet her on Wednesday. Two women were allegedly killed by an Israeli military sniper in the church on Saturday.

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China rights activist goes on trial for ‘inciting subversion of state power’

US congressional commission has called for Li Qiaochu’s release, citing reports she needs urgent medical treatment

Li Qiaochu, a human rights activist detained for nearly three years in China, has gone on trial in Shandong province charged with “inciting subversion of state power”.

On the eve of the trial, the chairs of the US congressional commission on China called for Li’s unconditional release, citing reports that the labour rights and feminist activist needed urgent medical treatment.

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Tuesday briefing: Will the accidental shooting of three Israeli hostages be a ‘sea change’ moment?

In today’s newsletter: The fallout in Israel after the IDF killed Alon Shamriz, Samer Al-Talalka and Yotam Haim on Friday

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Good morning. On Friday morning, in broad daylight, three young Israeli men who had been taken hostage by Hamas emerged near an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) position in Gaza, waving a white flag. They were unarmed, and shirtless, to show that they were not carrying explosives. An IDF sniper shot two of them dead, and wounded the third.

The survivor fled to a nearby building. He was heard shouting for help in Hebrew. When he reemerged from cover, he too was shot dead. A search of the building was carried out, revealing banners bearing the messages “Help, 3 hostages” and “SOS”.

PPE Medpro | A furious row has broken out between the disgraced Conservative peer Michelle Mone and the government over how much they knew about her links to a company that won lucrative deals during the pandemic. On Monday, as Rishi Sunak said he was taking the case “incredibly seriously”, Mone claimed the government “knew about my involvement from the very beginning”.

China | At least 118 people have been killed and more than 500 injured in an earthquake in China’s north-west Gansu and Qinghai provinces, state media has reported. The strong shallow earthquake struck shortly before midnight on Monday, with the toll rising on Tuesday as rescuers reached affected areas.

Technology | TikTok has given special status to certain high-profile accounts, with moderators in Europe encouraged to be more lenient with content posted by people including Russell Brand, according to internal messages seen by the Guardian. TikTok said it was inaccurate to say that staff had been asked to be less stringent with certain accounts and its guidelines are applied to everyone who uses the app.

Iceland | A volcano in southwest Iceland has erupted after weeks of intense earthquake activity. Fearing a significant outbreak on the Reykjanes peninsula, authorities had evacuated the nearly 4,000 inhabitants of the fishing town of Grindavik and closed the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.

Assisted dying | The ChildLine founder and broadcaster Esther Rantzen has said she has considered the option of assisted dying if her ongoing lung cancer treatment does not improve her condition. She told the BBC that there should be a free vote on the subject so that family members of people in her position do not face prosecution if they provide support.

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US launches Red Sea protection force after Houthi attacks – as it happened

This blog is now closed. See all our Israel-Gaza war coverage here

The US defence secretary has invited dozens of countries to take steps to address Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping as he spoke at a defence ministerial to tout a new military operation to secure commerce in the waterway.

“We’re all here because many countries can directly contribute to our common efforts to keep strategic waterways safe,” Lloyd Austin said, according to prepared remarks.

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Egypt’s Sisi wins third term as president after amending constitution

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wins Egypt election with 89.6% of vote after facing no serious challengers

The president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was voted in for a third term on Monday after an election where he faced no serious challengers, calling the vote a rejection of the “inhumane war” in neighbouring Gaza.

The president was able to claim the top job after Egypt’s constitution was amended in 2019, extending the presidential term to six years from four, and allowing Sisi to stand for a third term.

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Ukraine’s fight for funds to keep Russia at bay – podcast

As the Ukraine war heads into a new calendar year, the country is battling not just the Russian army but also on the diplomatic front, to secure further aid from its allies. Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh report

On the face of it, support for Ukraine from its allies in Europe and the US has been unwavering: ministers and officials fly in and out of Kyiv to back Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his government’s grinding fight to keep Russian troops at bay.

But that moral support is more solid than the financial backing. As Dan Sabbagh tells Hannah Moore, funding packages worth tens of billions of pounds have been held up in the US Congress by Republican politicians, and in the EU by Hungary’s prime minister, Victor Orbán.

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China earthquake: rescue efforts hampered by cold weather

Officials say at least 126 killed and more than 500 injured after 6.2-magnitude quake in Gansu and Qinghai provinces

Cold weather is hampering rescue efforts after an earthquake in China’s Gansu and Qinghai provinces that killed at least 126 people and injured more than 500.

The strong shallow earthquake struck shortly before midnight on Monday, sending residents fleeing outside into below-freezing temperatures. Thousands of houses have been reported damaged, and state media said public infrastructure had been damaged “to varying degrees”.

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