Ukrainian police say workers were at scene of attacks on village near frontline when Russia launched another strike
Two first responders have been killed by rocket attacks in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.
Ukrainian police said Russia fired a series of rockets at the village of Komyshuvakha, close to the frontline in Zaporizhzhia, which Russia annexed last year.
Continue reading...About 170,000 people demonstrate in capital over socialist party leader’s deal enabling second term in office
At least 170,000 people gathered in central Madrid for another large protest against the controversial Catalan amnesty law that has allowed Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to secure a second term in office.
Sánchez was sworn in on Friday after winning an investiture vote the previous day that came almost four months after July’s inconclusive snap general election. Although the conservative People’s party (PP) narrowly beat Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE) in the election, it was unable to secure the parliamentary support to form a government even with the backing of the far-right Vox party and other smaller groupings.
Continue reading...A benefits fraud affair and claims of institutional racism are among issues that led to crisis of trust before this week’s general election
Sandra Palmen was the whistleblower in a scandal that saw 31,000 Dutch families falsely accused of fraud – often dual nationals, single mothers or working families in less affluent postcodes who were financially and personally ruined by unjustly being made to repay every cent from years of childcare benefits.
But Palmen, a top inhouse lawyer who in 2017 wrote an official memo saying an anti-fraud drive had gone desperately wrong, was the only tax-office employee who was pushed out. Now she is standing for a new political party headed by a campaigning backbencher, Pieter Omtzigt, advocating a social contract to repair a series of government scandals in the Netherlands.
Continue reading...Foreign Office says it is supporting families after 32 Wales football fans arrested in Yerevan
More than 30 Wales football fans have been arrested in Armenia before Saturday’s European Championship qualifier in Yerevan.
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) confirmed that 32 supporters had been arrested in the Armenian capital and that the Foreign Office was involved.
Continue reading...Authorities say cracking sound caused ‘panic’ at site in Uttarakhand where 41 men remain trapped
Indian rescuers have paused efforts to reach 41 men trapped in a collapsed road tunnel after a cracking sound created a “panic situation” over the possibility of a further cave-in.
Excavators have been removing debris from the tunnel in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand since Sunday after a section that the workers had been building collapsed.
Continue reading...Ayman Safadi says credibility of international law at stake as he clashes with senior US official over terms for humanitarian pause
Jordan’s foreign minister has said Arab troops will not go to Gaza as he delivered a blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas.
Ayman Safadi clashed with Joe Biden’s senior Middle East adviser on Saturday, saying a humanitarian pause should not be conditional on the release of hostages held by Hamas. The US envoy, Brett McGurk, said the onus was on Hamas to release hostages as a pathway to humanitarian aid increasing and a pause in the fighting.
Continue reading...In Washington Post on Saturday, Biden writes: ‘After this war is over, the voices of Palestinian people … must be at the center of post-crisis governance’
A Tanzanian citizen missing since the 7 October raid by Hamas militants on southern Israel has been confirmed dead while a second remains unaccounted for, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dar Es Salaam said.
In a statement issued late on Friday, it said the family of farming student Clemence Mtenga had been notified of his death and talks were under way on repatriating his body. Searches continue for the second Tanzanian, Joshua Mollel, it added.
Continue reading...Groups behind ceasefire protests attended by hundreds of thousands say local action will replace London march this week
Organisers of the pro-Palestine marches that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to London’s streets have planned smaller action in villages, towns and cities rather than holding a national march in the capital this Saturday.
More than 100 pro-Palestine events demanding a ceasefire in Gaza are due to take place across the UK.
Continue reading...US gathering of Pacific Rim leaders most notable for meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, seen as a sign of easing China-US relations
Pacific Rim leaders have shown divisions over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza after a two-day summit of the Apec forum, while pledging support for reform of the World Trade Organization.
The 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum – among them Russia, China, the US and Australia – did not mention either conflict in their final joint communique. Instead an accompanying chair’s statement noted the bloc had “exchanged views on the ongoing crisis in Gaza”.
Continue reading...Meloni’s party is pleased by the appointment but Pietrangelo Buttafuoco has surprised before – not least by adopting Islam
When Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the incoming new president of the Venice Biennale, was once asked in an interview whether he was a fascist, the Italian rightwing journalist and public intellectual replied: “I am not a fascist. I am something else.”
After Buttafuoco was this week officially nominated to lead the oldest and largest cultural exhibition in the world, it is not just the artists, actors, architects, film-makers, dancers and musicians whose work will be shown at the coming biennales’ six events who are asking themselves what exactly that “something else” may be.
Continue reading...Shopping mall ceiling collapse among reported damage after earthquake of 6.7 magnitude hits Mindanao region
The death toll from a strong earthquake off the southern Philippines rose to five on Saturday as authorities reported more casualties across two provinces.
The 6.7-magnitude quake that struck the Mindanao region mid-afternoon on Friday caused part of a shopping mall ceiling to collapse, triggered power cuts and sent people fleeing into the streets.
Continue reading...Two parties, KMT and TPP, are trying to decide which should field candidate for president and which for vice-president
A potential joint ticket for Taiwan’s presidency by the two main opposition parties was in disarray after the smaller of the two said no consensus had been reached on how to use opinion polls to make that decision.
After weeks of sometimes acrimonious talks on joining up for the presidential election, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the much smaller Taiwan People’s party (TPP) agreed on Wednesday to look at an aggregate of opinion polls to decide which party’s candidate would run as president and which as vice-president.
Continue reading...Sofia Tereshchenko, Anastasiia Feskova, and Anastasiia Demchenko awarded 2023 International Children’s Peace prize
Three Ukrainian teenagers who developed apps for children who have fled war have been awarded this year’s International Children’s Peace prize at a ceremony in London.
Sofia Tereshchenko, 18, Anastasiia Feskova, 17, and Anastasiia Demchenko, 17, were awarded the prize for developing a pair of apps for refugee children.
Continue reading...Footage to date fails to prove Gaza complex was nerve centre for attacks on Israel, as military has claimed
• Israel-Hamas war – latest updates
Prior to their capture of Dar al-Shifa hospital, the Israel Defense Forces went to great lengths to depict the medical complex as a headquarters for Hamas, from where its attacks on Israel were planned.
The evidence produced so far falls well short of that. IDF videos have shown only modest collections of small arms, mostly assault rifles, recovered from the extensive medical complex.
Continue reading...Jozef Puska, 33, stabbed 23-year-old as she jogged along a canal last year in a case that shocked Ireland
A man has received a life sentence for stabbing to death a primary school teacher last year in a case that shocked Ireland.
Ashling Murphy, a 23-year-old teacher and musician, was murdered as she jogged along a canal near Tullamore, County Offaly, in January 2022.
Continue reading...Feiz Chihaoui says he was told wife Islam Alashi, Palestinian national with a visa to remain in UK, not entitled to help to leave
The husband of a teacher from Liverpool who is stuck in Gaza has criticised the Foreign Office for failing to help his wife reach safety.
Islam Alashi, who teaches English as a second language, travelled to Gaza in September to visit family. She has been stuck there amid Israeli bombardment since the conflict with Hamas began on 7 October.
Continue reading...African Union and Caricom members establish global reparations fund and call for formal apologies from European nations
A global movement to seek reparations for slavery has been forged during a summit in Ghana this week, with the African Union partnering with Caribbean countries to form a “united front” to persuade European nations to pay for “historical mass crimes”.
The partnership between the 55-member African Union and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) of 20 countries will aim to intensify pressure on former slave-owning nations to engage with the reparations movement.
Continue reading...Supreme court to consider justice ministry request to outlaw ‘international LGBT public movement’ as extremist
The Russian justice ministry on Friday said it had filed a lawsuit with the supreme court to outlaw what it called an “international LGBT public movement” as extremist, in the latest attacks against the country’s already suppressed LGBTQ+ community.
The ministry said in an online statement that authorities had determined “signs and manifestations of extremist nature” in “the activities of the LGBT movement” in Russia, including “incitement of social and religious discord”.
Continue reading...Ukrainian government says recent shelling in southern city of Kherson leaves more than 28,000 people without power
Environmental groups have installed radiation sensors across southern Ukraine to improve the quality of current readings and provide warnings in the event of a nuclear incident.
Greenpeace, which worked with Ukrainian group SaveDnipro to install the detectors, said they had been placed in the city of Zaporizhzhia, home to Europe’s largest nuclear plant, as well as in Yuzhnoukrainsk, Odesa, Tarutyne, Yuzhne, and Uman.
Continue reading...Daniel Hagari’s comments come amid mounting concerns about Israeli plans to expand military operations where people have sought refuge from fighting
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has urged leaders of developing nations to unite in the face of growing challenges due to the Israel-Hamas war as he convened a virtual summit of more than 100 countries.
“This is the time when the countries of the global south should unite for the greater global good,” Modi said in a speech, referring to developing nations.
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