Russia-Ukraine war live: Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds call with Emmanuel Macron while he visits Argentina

Ukrainian president updates French president on military progress as he visits Argentina’s far-right populist as he is sworn in

The leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has said she is on her way to Brussels to address foreign ministers and take part in the EU-Belarus consultative group meeting.

“We will discuss legalisation issues, Lukashenko’s sham 2024 elections, stronger sanctions to help free political prisoners and strategies to counter Russia,” she wrote on X.

With the Kremlin in full control of state media and able to decide who can and cannot run, the Navalny camp says this is not a real election.

But it sees the 100-day campaign window as a rare opportunity to draw Russians into a political conversation and convince them that the Ukraine war and the economic strains it has brought are problems of Putin’s making.

Continue reading...

Cop28: ‘failure is not an option,’ says summit president – as it happened

Sultan Al Jaber calls for countries to come together amid disagreements over the future of climate action

• China ‘would like to see agreement to substitute renewables for fossil fuels’

There is some more food-related news from the conference today, writes Fiona Harvey.

The Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation (ACF) launched on Sunday, a group that’s being called the “high ambition coalition for food”. It has Brazil, Sierra Leone and Norway as co-chairs, and other prominent members include Rwanda and Cambodia.

Strengthen national visions and food systems transformation pathways, inclusive of 10 priority action areas and consistent with science-based targets.

Update Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS),​​ and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) in line with these updated National Food System Transformation Pathways and/or Implementation Plans, by 2025 at the latest.

Report annually on targets and priority intervention areas

“Peasant family farmers, Indigenous and local communities, forest collectors, pastoralists, fisherfolk, and agricultural workers, are among the populations most harshly affected by climate change worldwide. Yet they are also the central actors who can sustainably transform food systems. Supporting their livelihoods through specifically tailored public policies is essential to achieve an agroecological transition towards healthy, resilient and sustainable food systems.”

Let’s face it: climate summits are broken. The delegates talk and talk, while Earth systems slide towards deadly tipping points. Since the climate negotiations began in 1992 more carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels has been released worldwide than in all preceding human history. This year is likely to set a new emissions record. They are talking us to oblivion.

Continue reading...

Qatar says ‘narrowing window’ for freeing more hostages held in Gaza – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

Mediation efforts are continuing to secure a new Gaza ceasefire and free more hostages held by Hamas despite the ongoing Israeli bombardment that is “narrowing the window” for a successful outcome, Qatar’s prime minister said Sunday.

“Our efforts as the state of Qatar along with our partners are continuing. We are not going to give up,” sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told the Doha Forum, adding that “the continuation of the bombardment is just narrowing this window for us”.

If Israel is above international law, sanctions should be put on it. Israel should not be allowed to continue violating international humanitarian law and international law.

Our main concern is not the day after. It is today. We want the stop of atrocities and genocide that is happening today.

Continue reading...

‘Come with solutions’: Cop28 president calls for compromise in final meetings

Sultan Al Jaber urges nations to be flexible as talks reach impasse over whether to phase out or phase down fossil fuels

Ministers and negotiators must come to the vital final meetings of Cop28 without prepared statements, without rigid red lines, and be prepared to compromise, the president of the UN climate summit has said.

Sultan Al Jaber, whose position is now pivotal to the talks as they enter their final days, on Sunday convened a majlis of all countries, a meeting in the traditional form of an elders’ conference in the United Arab Emirates.

Continue reading...

Revealed: the oldest black hole ever observed, dating to dawn of universe

Exclusive: astronomers surprised at size of 13bn-year-old object, which raises new questions about where black holes came from

Astronomers have detected the oldest black hole ever observed, dating back more than 13bn years to the dawn of the universe.

The observations, by the James Webb space telescope (JWST), reveal it to be at the heart of a galaxy 440m years after the big bang. At around a million times the mass of the sun, it is surprisingly big for a baby black hole, raising the question of how it grew so big so quickly.

Continue reading...

Iran stops Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to receive human rights prize

Ban comes as jailed Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi begins new hunger strike before award ceremony

Iran has banned Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to France to receive the EU’s top human rights prize on her behalf, as the family of the imprisoned Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi said she had begun a new hunger strike before Sunday’s award ceremony in Oslo.

In Mohammadi’s absence, her 17-year-old twin children, Ali and Kiana, will instead collect the award on her behalf, reading out a speech their mother smuggled out of her cell.

Continue reading...

Republicans to meet allies of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán on ending Ukraine aid

Hungarian appearance at two-day event part of Orbán’s transatlantic attempt to bolster Russia’s war

Allies of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.

Márton Ugrósdy, the deputy state secretary for the prime minister’s political director’s office, and Attila Demkó, a leading pro-Orbán academic, along with members of the Hungarian embassy in Washington, will on Monday begin a two-day event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank.

Continue reading...

Bank of England, Fed and ECB poised to leave interest rates on hold

Stubbornly high inflation forces central banks to avoid cuts, but markets expect falls next year

The western world’s largest central banks are poised to keep interest rates on hold this week amid concerns over stubbornly high inflation, despite growing expectations for sharp cuts in borrowing costs next year.

In a crunch week for the global economy, the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank are expected to keep interest rates at their current restrictively high levels to ensure inflation continues to fall back from the highest levels in decades.

Continue reading...

‘As a parent, I lost hope for justice’: family seeking answers over death of man on Del Monte farm

Kenyan parents of Peter Mutuku Mutisya claim his neck had marks like he had been strangled. No injuries were recorded on the official report

When Peter Mutuku Mutisya’s body was found floating in a dam on Del Monte’s farm in Kenya last month his family and friends had already been searching for days.

Mutisya, 25, worked as a chemical sprayer at the neighbouring farm and was relied on by his relatives, to whom he would offer lifts on his prized motorbike.

Continue reading...

Groundbreaking graphic novel on Gaza rushed back into print 20 years on

When Joe Sacco created Palestine no one knew what ‘comics journalism’ was. Now his pioneering book has eager new readers

An acclaimed nonfiction graphic novel about Gaza, which pioneered the medium of “comics journalism”, has been rushed back into print after surging demand since the fresh outbreak of the conflict two months ago.

Palestine, by Joe Sacco, was originally released in comic book form by the American publisher Fantagraphics 30 years ago, then published as a single volume by the company, and by Jonathan Cape in the UK in 2003.

Continue reading...

Human rights groups investigate death at Kenyan Del Monte pineapple farm

Exclusive: Inquiry comes after discovery of body of Peter Mutuku Mutisya, 25, in a dam on the plantation

Human rights groups are investigating a death at a Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya after a man’s body was found in a dam there last month.

The body of Peter Mutuku Mutisya, 25, was discovered floating in the dam on Del Monte’s plantation near Thika on 17 November, four days after friends said he had gone there to steal pineapples.

Continue reading...

UN chief vows to go on seeking ceasefire in Gaza despite US veto

António Guterres says UN has no clear route map to stop conflict and world institutions are ‘caught in a time warp’

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has vowed he will not give up seeking a ceasefire in Gaza after the US wielded its veto to block the move at the security council on Friday, leaving the UN without a clear route map to stop the conflict lasting many months.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Guterres did not directly criticise the US in his address but said the security council was “paralysed by geostrategic divisions”. He added world institutions “are weak and outdated, caught in a time warp reflecting a reality of 80 years ago”.

Continue reading...

Tories warn Rishi Sunak that his Rwanda plan ‘will never be law’

As Tuesday’s crucial vote looms, MPs from both wings of the party say PM has tied his future to a bill that cannot succeed

• Read more: The UK’s deal with Rwanda must stay within the rule of law

Senior Tories from across the party are warning that Rishi Sunak’s emergency Rwanda plan will never become law in its current form, ahead of the most critical vote of his premiership.

Liberal Tories confirmed last night that, despite their desire to back the PM against the right, “serious concerns” remain about the plan and more reassurances will be required. Meanwhile, a self-styled “star chamber” of legal figures examining the proposals for the Tory right is understood to have found problems that are “extremely difficult to resolve”.

Continue reading...

Sisi poised to win power again, but Egyptians’ minds are on Gaza

There’s no chance of a fair election on Sunday, but Egypt president’s weakness on Gaza is showing in a country racked by poverty, corruption and inflation

For Egyptians, the only signs that an election is imminent are the posters of President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi’s face plastered on every available wall and billboard across the country.

The repetitive images of Sisi – always gazing into the distance with a stiff, forced smile – are so ubiquitous that people have turned to the only venue for free expression they have left and have begun making memes of them to share online. One picture that circulated features Jack and Rose from the film Titanic sitting on the deck of the ship surrounded by Sisi’s campaign posters. In another, people joke that a pregnant woman passed so many pictures of Sisi on her way to work that her newborn baby resembled the incumbent president.

Continue reading...

David Cameron urged to tell China to free Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai

Newspaper tycoon’s son seeks meeting with foreign secretary as Briton, 76, faces trial and possible life sentence

Foreign secretary David Cameron is being urged to demand the release of newspaper tycoon Jimmy Lai as the British national prepares for a high-profile trial in Hong Kong this month.

Lai, 76, is facing a life sentence, accused of colluding with foreign forces under the draconian national security law introduced by Beijing in 2020 following mass protests.

Continue reading...

Clash between criminal gang and villagers leaves 14 dead in central Mexico

Video of fight shows villagers with sickles and rifles chasing down suspected gang members amid gunfire

A clash between gunmen from a criminal gang and residents of a small farming community in central Mexico left 14 people dead and seven injured, local authorities said on Saturday.

Dramatic video of the fight on Friday posted on social media showed villagers in cowboy hats with sickles and hunting rifles chasing down suspected gang members amid bursts of automatic gunfire.

Continue reading...

Labour steps up criticism of ‘intolerable’ killings in Gaza

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy slams Israeli ‘death and destruction’ and urges UK travel ban on violent settlers

• Read more: Labour will oppose expulsions of Palestinians and bar violent settlers from UK

The Labour party today delivers its strongest criticism of Israel over its attacks on Palestinians, describing the death and destruction in Gaza over the past two months as “intolerable” and attacking two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers for “totally unacceptable” support of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

In a sharp change of tone, David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, with the full backing of party leader Keir Starmer, attacks the Israeli authorities for “turning a blind eye” to violence by settlers in the West Bank, which has “forcibly displaced” more than 1,000 Palestinians from their homes since the attacks on Israel by Hamas on 7 October.

Continue reading...

Biden bypasses Congress to sell tank shells to Israel amid further fighting in Khan Younis

Emergency declaration used to sell $106.5m worth of ammo for Israel’s tanks as reports of fierce fighting in southern Gaza city of Khan Younis emerge

The Biden administration has used an emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without congressional review, the Pentagon said on Saturday.

The state department on Friday used an Arms Export Control Act emergency declaration for the tank rounds worth $106.5m for immediate delivery to Israel, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Continue reading...

Thousands call for Gaza ceasefire on central London march

Police say 13 protesters arrested during march from Bank Junction to Parliament Square

Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters gathered in Parliament Square, London, on Saturday to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The protesters marched from Bank Junction to Westminster, with many holding signs with the words “Free Palestine” and “End the siege”. Some protesters chanted: “One, two, three, four, occupation no more, five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terrorist state.”

Continue reading...

Row brews between Home Office and Foreign Office on eve of UN refugee summit

Furore over the controversial Rwanda scheme labelled far from ‘helpful’ as Britain seeks to fulfil role in the international forum

Tensions between the Home Office and Foreign Office are said to be “strained” before the largest international gathering in years on the refugee crisis, with the UK’s contribution overshadowed by the row over Rwanda.

Headed by development minister Andrew Mitchell, the UK delegation at this week’s UN Global Refugee Forum will unveil what it describes as an “ambitious package” that includes delivering schooling to hundreds of thousands of refugee children.

Continue reading...