Eighteen-hour ordeal concludes with man detained and child uninjured, say police
A hostage situation at Hamburg airport has concluded with the suspect and his daughter exiting a car, police have said, ending an 18-hour ordeal that had closed northern Germany’s busiest airport.
The suspect was arrested without resistance and the child appeared not to be injured, the police said on the social media platform X.
Continue reading...Exhibition puts music previously shunned by elites as ‘stuff of outlaws’ in long tradition of black culture and resistance
Hebert Amorim was eight when he got his first taste of funk carioca (Rio funk): a pirate CD by Mr Catra, a favela MC famed for his ferociously explicit verses about gangs, guns and sex.
“My mum caught me listening to it and went mental,” said the 30-year-old visual artist from Senador Camará, a hardscrabble corner of west Rio de Janeiro where police fear to tread.
Continue reading...Members of Pedro Sánchez’s party vote 87% in favour of proposal to form government backed by smaller parties
Members of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) have backed plans to secure another term as prime minister for the party’s leader, Pedro Sánchez, in return for granting a hugely controversial amnesty to people involved in the illegal and unilateral bid for Catalan independence six years ago.
Spain has been in the hands of Sánchez’s caretaker government since July’s inconclusive snap general election, in which the PSOE was narrowly beaten by the conservative People’s party (PP). Although the PP won the most seats, it fell short of a parliamentary majority and has proved unable to form a government, even with the support of the far-right Vox party and other, smaller political groupings.
Continue reading...Fear adds to Russia-Ukraine conflict risk and increases ‘probability of European and of US recession’
A global recession could be triggered by the conflict in the Middle East as the humanitarian crisis compounds the challenges facing an already precarious world economy, two of Wall Street’s biggest names warned this weekend.
Larry Fink, chief executive of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, said a combination of the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, Israel’s resultant attack on Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year had pushed the world “almost to a whole new future”.
Continue reading...Binance and Coinbase are under investigation – but Bitcoin was trading at highest value in a year as FTX founder convicted of fraud
As the trial of the former crypto star and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried began last month, headlines declared cryptocurrency was on trial too.
But when Bankman-Fried was found guilty on seven counts of wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy Thursday evening, after less than five hours of jury deliberations, Bitcoin was trading at its highest price in a year.
Continue reading...Killer of Juan Jumalon, 57, pretended to be a listener to enter home studio in Misamis Occidental province
A radio anchor in the southern Philippines has been fatally shot in his studio in a brazen attack witnessed by people watching the programme live on Facebook.
The gunman gained entry to the home-based radio station of Juan Jumalon, a provincial news broadcaster known also as DJ Johnny Walker, by pretending to be a listener. He then shot him twice during a live morning broadcast in Calamba town in Misamis Occidental province, police said.
Continue reading...Peers express fears that Jagtar Singh Johal will not receive ‘due process’ in India amid torture claims
Assurances by a UK minister that a British man imprisoned in India will receive a fair trial fly in the face of evidence that he has been tortured and arbitrarily detained, three lawyers who held senior public roles have warned.
To coincide with the sixth anniversary of Jagtar Singh Johal’s detention, Ken MacDonald KC, Elish Angiolini KC and Jim Wallace KC have written to the UK Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad asking him to retract his recent comments saying that the British citizen would receive “due process” in India.
Continue reading...Many in the city have put the Hanshin Tigers’ lack of success down to an unusual Colonel Sanders-based superstition, but it may be about to end
The last time the Hanshin Tigers were proclaimed the best baseball team in Japan, their fans celebrated by hurling themselves into a canal and carrying out an “abduction” that many believe placed their team under a curse that has lasted almost four decades.
On Saturday, the sleeping giants of Japanese baseball were forced to wait another day for the chance to banish the jinx by winning their first Japan Series title since 1985, after a defeat to local rivals Orix Buffaloes ensured that the season’s finale would go to a seventh and decisive game.
Continue reading...Australian prime minister pushes the benefits of ‘rules-based trade’ after a period of unilateral sanctions imposed by China
Anthony Albanese has delivered an implicit rebuke to China for its strong-arm tactics during Beijing’s protracted trade war with Canberra, telling attenders at a trade expo in Shanghai “Australia and China have prospered thanks to the certainty and stability that is made possible by rules-based trade”.
But while politely criticising Beijing’s trade tactics, Australia’s prime minister did not rule out supporting China’s long-held ambition to join a critical regional pact – the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Continue reading...Shadow foreign secretary toughens line on Israel-Palestine in light of ‘shocking number’ of dead civilians
Labour has warned that the “siege conditions” in place in Gaza are unacceptable and called for an immediate humanitarian pause to the fighting, in the party’s strongest intervention over Israel’s intensifying war against Hamas.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary who visited the region last week, said that the “number of dead Palestinian civilians and children is shocking” as he called on Israel to take further steps to stop a “humanitarian catastrophe”. He said that Israel “must uphold international law” and also warned of violence in the West Bank.
Continue reading...Former junta leader back in jail hours after commando raid his lawyer says was an abduction
The former head of Guinea’s 2008 military junta has been recaptured and returned to prison hours after an apparent jailbreak led by a heavily armed commando, the army and his lawyer said.
At least two other former officials on trial alongside Moussa Dadis Camara over a 2009 massacre during his presidency were taken in the earlier operation that sparked heavy gunfire in the capital Conakry, a minister and lawyers said.
Continue reading...Free Palestine Coalition’s sit-in stops traffic in central shopping district as protests continue across UK over Israel-Hamas war
More than 350 protesters shut down part of Oxford Street on Saturday as they staged a sit-in protest during the shopping district’s busiest hours.
The demonstration, organised by the Free Palestine Coalition, a collective of grassroots groups standing in solidarity with Palestine, occupied a busy junction and stopped traffic for more than an hour by sitting down in the road.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
AFP has just posted a report from near the war-battered town of Bakhmut – which Ukraine is attempting to retake – quoting a Ukrainian soldier with a grim assessment of the conflict.
“I’ve been saying that for some time now already. Step by step we’re losing the war,” the serviceman, who uses the call sign “Mudryi” (Wise), told AFP. “The longer this static war continues, the worse it is for us.”
Continue reading...Ukrainian president rejects war at ‘stalemate’ and points to similar lulls in 2022 before Kharkiv was liberated
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has rejected the idea western countries are putting pressure on Kyiv to enter peace talks with Russia.
It came after NBC reported US and European officials had spoken to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war.
Continue reading...Casualties in Gaza are growing, and so is Israel’s concern about the war’s direction
In the dark and the cloying heat of a Gaza night, the troops of the 13th Battalion of Israel’s Golani Brigade were attempting to advance in northern Gaza amid the flashes of air and artillery strikes across the Gaza Strip.
The ambush, when it happened, caught them by surprise – 30 fighters from an elite Hamas unit emerging from hidden tunnel entrances.
Continue reading...Officials remind residents of rules and say non-native Argentine black and white tegus can pose threat to wildlife and people
An oblivious Georgia homeowner was unaware a huge 3ft tegu lizard had taken up residence under her porch until eagle-eyed children in the neighborhood spotted it and told her, state wildlife officials said.
The reptile was a non-native Argentine black and white tegu, the largest of its species that can grow up to 5ft and pose a threat to wildlife and people, the officials reported.
Continue reading...Hundreds forced to evacuate homes and others left without power in Tuscany as storm sweeps across Europe
A seventh person has been found dead and another is still missing more than a day after rivers burst their banks following torrential rain in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the Ansa news agency reported.
The body of a 69-year-old man was found in the town of Campi Bisenzio, about 9 miles (15km) north-west of Florence, the news agency said. Officials earlier said six people had died in the deluge that started late on Thursday.
Continue reading...Private jet travel is booming – and community members living near airports say they are bearing the brunt
It was just before noon on New Year’s Day when PJ Breslin reached her limit. As she angrily typed out a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, the roar of yet another jet aircraft drowned out her thoughts and rattled the windows of her home office.
“It’s insane to even contemplate that many private jets flying into one small location!” wrote Breslin, who has lived in the western Colorado town of Rifle for more than 25 years. “Jets owned by the wealthy, entitled, third-home owners and fake environmentalist celebrities, who have zero idea of their impact on the valley and the planet, much less their neighbors. Nor do they care.”
Continue reading...Mexico’s Pacific coast was battered by 165mph winds and torrential rain on 25 October. Thousands lost their homes and many now have too little food or water to survive
In the small hours of Wednesday 25 October, Josefina Maldonado, a grandmother of two in her 60s who lives in the Renacimiento district of Acapulco, watched as the corrugated metal roof of her home flew into the sky, ripped off by 165mph (270km/h) winds. The family home and everything and everyone in it, including two terrified small children, were prey to the torrential rain and the horrors of the hurricane. Most of the furniture, including the beds, was swept away.
“It wasn’t that the wind or the water was stronger. Both were working together,” Maldonado says. “We were up all night trying to save what we could, and the children screamed and cried for hours.”
Continue reading...António Guterres calls humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘horrific’ as thousands of people remain without food, water and medicine
Agence France-Presse has reported on the aftermath of what Hamas authorities said was Israeli tank shelling that killed 20 people at the Osama bin Zaid boys’ school north of Gaza City.
The report said:
Ambulance teams rushed into the debris-littered building to aid the injured and remove the dead.
Stunned onlookers wept and wandered the scene with hands clasped above the head in horror and disbelief.
Continue reading...