Category Archives: World News

Allegations of extensive sexual abuse at Kenyan offsetting project used by Shell and Netflix

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NGOs report allegations of abuse and harassment at Kasigau Corridor conservation project in southern Kenya over 12 years

Male staff at a leading Kenyan carbon-offsetting project used by Netflix, Shell and other large companies have been accused of extensive sexual abuse and harassment over more than a decade, following an investigation by two NGOs.

The Kasigau Corridor conservation project in southern Kenya, operated by the California-based firm Wildlife Works, generates carbon credits by protecting dryland forests at risk of being destroyed in key elephant, lion and wildlife habitats west of Mombasa. The scheme was the first ever forest protection scheme approved by Verra, the world’s leading certifier of carbon offsets, and has also been accredited for its biodiversity and community benefits, probably generating millions of dollars in revenue in carbon-credit sales.

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Myanmar junta facing biggest challenge yet after new offensive by armed groups, analysts say

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Junta struggling to counter offensive by armed ethnic groups, amid claims it has lost 100 outposts in the north

Myanmar’s military is facing its biggest military challenge since it seized power in a coup more than two years ago, after an alliance of opponents cut off key trading routes and seized towns and dozens of outposts near the Chinese border.

The offensive in northern Shan state, which was launched by an alliance of ethnic armed groups in coordination with newer anti-coup groups, is a significant blow for the military, analysts say, and could be exploited by the wider pro-democracy resistance movement.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 622

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Bomb in birthday present kills Ukrainian major who advised commander-in-chief; Russian attack damages Odesa museum; Ukraine grain exports fall

A close military adviser to the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s army has been killed after a booby-trapped birthday present he was given exploded. “Under tragic circumstances, my assistant and close friend, Major Gennadiy Chastiakov, was killed … on his birthday,” Gen Valery Zaluzhny wrote online. Chastiakov leaves a wife and four children, he said.

Zaluzhny said Chastiakov had been “fully devoting his life to the armed forces of Ukraine and the fight against Russian aggression”. Attacks targeting Ukrainian officials have been relatively rare since Moscow invaded. There have been attacks on Russian nationalists, which Russia has blamed on Ukraine. In April, a blast from a statuette rigged with explosives killed the 40-year-old pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the deaths of at least 19 soldiers in a Russian missile strike on a military ceremony was a “tragedy that could’ve been avoided”. Other reports suggest the death toll could be much higher, while defence chiefs are under pressure over the staging of the event in a frontline village vulnerable to attack.

Zelenskiy has said it is irresponsible to talk of holding an election in Ukraine in wartime and called for unity to avoid pointless political discussions. “We need to recognise that this is a time for defence, a time for battle, upon which the fate of the state and its people depend … I believe that elections are not appropriate at this time.” Elections are banned under martial law in force in Ukraine, but Zelenskiy had been considering whether to invoke special provisions to stage them. He has said he would like to run for a second term if a vote took place.

In the US, some senate Republicans have released a sweeping set of US border security proposals as a condition for sending more aid to Ukraine, laying out a draft plan that includes resuming construction on parts of the Mexico border wall.

Vladimir Putin has decided to run in the March presidential election, a move that would keep him in power until least 2030, as he is said to feel he must steer Russia through its most perilous period in decades, sources told Reuters.

Radio Free Europe has said that it believes Russia may have taken one of its journalists “hostage” for a potential prisoner swap with the US and is appealing to Moscow not to treat her cruelly, the broadcaster’s acting president said.

Several dozen owners of transport companies blocked three major Polish border crossings with Ukraine in protest at what they say is unfair competition from its businesses.

Ukraine’s grain exports have fallen by almost a third compared with last year, agriculture ministry data shows, to 9.8m tonnes so far in the July 2023-June 2024 season. The ministry said that by this point last year, Ukraine had exported 14.3m tonnes.

Odesa’s national art museum said seven exhibitions, most featuring the work of contemporary Ukrainian artists, were damaged by a Russian strike that left a large crater outside the museum, which is celebrating its 124th anniversary. Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzheppar, said Kyiv was “deeply outraged” by the attack and urged the UN’s Paris-based heritage agency, Unesco, to condemn it.

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Hungary sacks museum chief for not enforcing under-18s ban at LGBTQ+ exhibition

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László Simon dismissed after National Museum allowed children to visit a World Press Photo show

The director of Budapest’s National Museum has been fired from his role over a contentious anti-LGBTQ+ law that he himself voted for when he was a member of parliament.

Hungary’s government on Monday dismissed director László Simon after his museum allowed under-18s to visit a World Press Photo exhibition featuring images of LGBTQ+ people, despite laws banning the “promotion of homosexuality” to minors.

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China ‘world’s biggest debt collector’ as poorer nations struggle with its loans

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Country, estimated to be owed up to $1.5trn, is increasing penalties for late payments and cutting back on infrastructure projects

China has become the world’s biggest debt collector, as the money it is owed from developing countries has surged to between $1.1tn (£889bn) and $1.5tn, according to a new report. An estimated 80% of China’s overseas lending portfolio in the global south is now supporting countries in financial distress.

Since 2017, China has been the world’s biggest bilateral lender; its main development banks issued nearly $500bn between 2008 and 2021. While some of this predates the belt and road initiative (BRI), Beijing’s flagship development programme has mobilised much of the investment in developing countries.

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Trump claims New York fraud trial is ‘election interference’ – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For our latest reporting on this trial, you can read:

Before heading to the court, Trump used Truth Social to attack the judge and attorney general in the case and claimed once again the case is politically motivated:

Got a really Biased, Nasty, Club controlled, but often overturned, Judge, a Racist, Evil, and Corrupt Attorney General, BUT A CASE THAT, ACCORDING TO ALMOST ALL LEGAL SCHOLARS, HAS ZERO MERIT,” he wrote. “A dark day for our Country. WITCH HUNT!

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Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis potent challengers to Biden in swing states, poll shows – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For our reporting on politics polling, read our latest article:

Gaza’s health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed there since 7 October.

We have a separate live blog covering the conflict, and you can follow it here:

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‘I could never dream such a nightmare’: Gaza in grip of humanitarian disaster

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UN official, medics and displaced people tell of overcrowding, panic and lack of essentials as bombardment continues

UN-run shelters in Gaza are so crowded that it is impossible to count the people needing food, water, medicine and other basics, administrators say, as more fighting and bombardments continue to arrive.

“It is a terrible, terrible situation. There is no room even to sleep on the floor. There is one toilet for 700 or 800 people. No bread, no stoves for cooking. We are drinking irrigation water,” one UN official at a compound in the southern city of Khan Younis told the Guardian on Monday night.

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Gaza becoming ‘a graveyard for children’, says UN secretary general

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António Guterres calls for more aid trucks to enter besieged territory and calls for end to ‘dead end of destruction’

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that the Gaza Strip is becoming “a graveyard for children” as he called again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to allow aid into the embattled territory.

The UN chief’s comments came on Monday after Gaza health authorities said the death toll had now exceeded 10,000 people and the heads of all the major UN humanitarian organisations made an unprecedented joint statement calling for a ceasefire.

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Tusk forced to wait as PiS given first chance to form Polish government

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Law and Justice party won most votes in last month’s election but all other parties have ruled out working with them

Donald Tusk, who declared victory in last month’s Polish parliamentary election, will have to wait several weeks before having a chance to form a government after the president, Andrzej Duda, said he would offer the first chance to do so to the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

PiS, the nationalist, populist party that has governed Poland for the past eight years, won the most votes of any party in the election but fell far short of a majority of seats in parliament. All other parties have ruled out entering a coalition with them, leaving them without any obvious path to retain power.

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David Lammy urges UK government to press Israel to end West Bank violence

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Letter to James Cleverly criticises ‘offensive rhetoric’ by some Israeli ministers and calls for settlers inciting hatred to be banned from UK

Labour has issued its most direct criticism of the Israeli government since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, criticising the remarks of rightwing Israeli ministers over the West Bank and saying they have been responsible for “unacceptable and offensive rhetoric about Palestinians”.

In a letter to the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, that puts policy daylight between the government and Labour on the crisis in the Middle East, David Lammy demanded to know what had been done to press the Israelis to curb the violence in the West Bank by settlers and government forces.

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Unopened 18th-century love letters to French sailors read for first time

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Letters from loved ones of captured ship’s crew during seven years’ war lay forgotten for centuries

A forgotten bundle of love letters sent to French sailors more than 260 years ago – but never before opened or read – has been discovered among British naval archives, revealing intimate details of 18th-century marital and family life.

The remarkable stash of more than 100 letters was discovered by chance at the National Archives in Kew by Renaud Morieux, professor of European history at the University of Cambridge, who asked archivists if they could be opened so he could read them for the first time.

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Brazil: Lula deploys troops to ports and airports in organised crime crackdown

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Military intervention to last until May and is reportedly designed to cut off key drug and gun smuggling routes

Thousands of troops have taken up position in the ports and airports of Rio and São Paulo and along Brazil’s western border as part of efforts to “asphyxiate” organized crime amid an upsurge in bloodshed and violence.

The military intervention – ordered last Friday by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – will last until next May and is reportedly designed to cut off the drug and gun smuggling routes on which trafficking and mafia groups depend.

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UK withdraws some embassy staff from Lebanon and tells nationals to leave

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Foreign Office says situation has ‘potential to deteriorate quickly’ after Israeli and Hezbollah forces clash

The Foreign Office has withdrawn some embassy staff from Lebanon and is advising British nationals to leave the country while they still can amid increasing concern about violence and unrest connected to the conflict in Gaza.

“Events in Lebanon are fast moving. The situation has potential to deteriorate quickly and with no warning,” the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement, which advised Britons in Lebanon to register with the embassy and make plans to leave while possible.

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Monday briefing: How Hezbollah is fuelling fears of a new front in the Israel-Hamas war

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In today’s newsletter: The Lebanese militant group has engaged in skirmishes with Israel following the invasion of Gaza – could it grow into full-blown war?

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Good morning. It’s been another remorseless weekend for the people of Gaza. On Saturday night, an Israeli air strike at the Al-Maghazi refugee camp killed at least 45 people, the Hamas-run health ministry claimed, while the head of the Al-Aqsa hospital put the toll at 52; Israel says it is investigating the incident. And late on Sunday, a series of huge explosions lit up the sky over the territory – strikes which Israeli media reports suggested were a precursor to an advance on Gaza City within the next 48 hours.

About 120 miles north, exchanges across Israel’s border with Lebanon continued at a much lower intensity – but with a momentum of their own. Lebanese state media said that three children and their grandmother were killed in an Israeli air strike, an incident that prompted retaliatory rocket strikes on the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. Those ongoing border skirmishes have fuelled fears of a new front involving a far more powerful regional actor than Hamas: Hezbollah.

King’s speech | Rishi Sunak will this week announce legislation for a new annual system for awarding oil and gas licences as part of a highly political king’s speech which the Conservatives hope will open up clear dividing lines with Labour. The government, which has already watered down the UK’s climate targets, said the plans would protect jobs and bolster energy security.

Poverty | Poverty levels in the UK are “simply not acceptable” and the government is violating international law, the United Nations’ poverty envoy has said ahead of a visit to the country this week. Olivier De Schutter told the Guardian that “things have got worse” since his predecessor Philip Alston angered the government with criticism on his own visit in 2019.

Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskiy has denied a claim from the Ukrainian military’s commander-in-chief that the war with Russia has reached a stalemate. Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi said the war had entered an attritional phase and suggested Russia was slowly gaining the upper hand.

Conservatives | Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, has denied that rape allegations against a Conservative MP were “covered up” during his time running the party’s headquarters. It follows reports in the Mail on Sunday that allegations against an MP were not dealt with properly by the party, allowing the politician to continue offending.

Israel-Hamas war | The parents-in-law of Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, have arrived safely in Scotland after fleeing the conflict in Gaza. Yousaf shared a family photo of his wife, Nadia, and her parents, Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, who were among 92 British nationals permitted to pass through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Friday morning.

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DRC offers free maternity care to cut death rate among mothers and babies

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Healthcare workers say clinics are being overwhelmed by women seeking help, amid lack of staff and facilities to back programme

Pregnant women across the Democratic Republic of the Congo are to be offered free healthcare in an effort to cut the country’s high rates of maternal and neonatal deaths.

Women in 13 out of 26 regions in the country will, by the end of the year, be entitled to free services during pregnancy and for one month after childbirth. Babies will receive free healthcare for their first 28 days under the scheme, which the government plans to extend to the rest of DRC – although there is no timetable for that yet.

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Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel seen as move away from party’s antisemitic past

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National Rally has firmly supported Israel’s right to defend itself and promised to protect French Jews

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks is being seen as part of a long-running drive to move her National Rally party away from its toxic, antisemitic past before a run for the presidency in 2027.

National Rally, which is now the biggest opposition party in the French parliament and is polling ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s centrists for next year’s European elections, has firmly supported Israel’s right to defend itself since the Hamas attacks on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza.

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Ukraine doesn’t want sympathy vote on joining EU, says deputy PM

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War-torn country will complete reforms required by bloc within two years, says Olga Stefanishyna before leaders’ summit

Ukraine will have completed the reforms required to get membership of the EU within two years, the deputy prime minister has said, insisting the country does not want a sympathy vote at a looming leaders summit to decide on enlargement of the bloc.

A review published on Wednesday is expected to reveal the European Commission position on whether negotiations should open or not with those countries most advanced with their accession reforms.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 621

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Zelenskiy announces criminal inquiry after Ukrainian soldiers die in missile strike, reportedly during medal ceremony; Ukraine hits Russian warship

The Ukrainian army has confirmed soldiers from its 128th Mountain Assault Brigade were killed in a Russian missile strike during what media described as a medal awarding ceremony. A Ukrainian soldier said on social media that 22 people were killed and criticised commanders for having held the event in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region. Local media reported 20 deaths – figures that could not be independently verified.

“This is a tragedy that could have been avoided,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said of the soldiers’ deaths. “A criminal investigation has been registered into the tragedy. The main thing is to establish the full truth about what happened and to prevent this from happening again.”

Ukrainian cruise missiles damaged a warship docked at the occupied Crimean peninsula, Russia admitted on Sunday, a day after Ukraine announced the strike. Ukraine launched 15 cruise missiles at the BE Butoma shipyard based in the east coast city of Kerch on Saturday, with air defences shooting down 13, Russia’s defence ministry said. Ukrainian attacks have progressively been making Crimea untenable for Russia’s Black Sea fleet to use. Ukraine said the damaged warship was one of Russia’s most advanced, able to fire Kalibr cruise missiles. Online observers named the ship as the Askold.

Zelenskiy said the cost of letting Russia win the war would be further conflict involving ground troops from Nato countries, as he urged US lawmakers on NBC’s Meet the Press to increase war funding. Zelenskiy also said he was “not ready” for talks with Russia unless its invading troops withdraw. The United States “know I am not ready to speak with the terrorists, because their word is nothing”, he said. “They have to go out from our territory, only after that the world can switch on diplomacy.”

Zelenskiy also urged Donald Trump to visit Ukraine, where he said it would take minutes to show the war-sceptic former US president his errors about the conflict.

Tensions simmered between the civilian and military wings of Ukraine’s leadership as the president’s office publicly rebuked top military commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi for his comments that the war was at a stalemate. The office of Zelenskiy said Zaluzhnyi’s words were helpful to Russia and stirred panic.

Zelenskiy said the war in Gaza was distracting focus from Ukraine’s war against Russia as humanitarian, diplomatic and media attention shifts to the Middle East.

Russian casualties climbed to more than 305,000 dead or injured, Ukraine said, with the US estimating 120,000 Russian deaths and 180,000 injured in the invasion.

Ukraine’s Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun said Russian forces were following “cannon fodder” tactics, referring to fighting in the Tavria region.

Fake Russian propaganda linking the Gaza and Ukraine wars is spreading online, with a fabricated Israeli promotional video claiming to show Ukrainians fighting in Israel exposed by the news organisation Ukrinform.

Russia and Saudi Arabia confirmed they would be restricting the supply of crude oil until the end of this year, in efforts to raise the price of oil worldwide.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Saturday that Ukraine had “made excellent progress” towards EU accession, as she visited Kyiv and affirmed EU support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.

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UK government accused of separating children from parents in Gaza

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British nationals say dependants trying to leave conflict zone via Rafah crossing have been left off Foreign Office lists

The government has been accused of separating British children in Gaza from their mothers after it was revealed that citizens without passports had been left off its safe passage list.

The names of British citizens allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt via the Rafah crossing have been added to a list but, some have said their dependants have not been included by the Foreign Office.

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