Category Archives: World News

Zimbabwe’s president accused of nepotism after appointing son and nephew

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Emmerson Mnangagwa also criticised for inflating size of cabinet and reappointing underperforming ministers

The Zimbabwean president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, recently returned to power after a disputed election, has been accused by the opposition of attempting to create a family dynasty after appointing his son as deputy finance minister barely a week on from conferring his wife with an honorary doctorate.

Announcing his new cabinet on Monday, Mnangagwa said one of his younger sons, David Kudakwashe Mnangagwa, would be second in charge at the Treasury, while appointing a nephew, Tongai, as deputy minister in the tourism minstry.

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Spanish ‘wolf pack’ rapist’s sentence reduced under botched law

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Sentence trimmed from 15 years to 14 years in response to legislation that in turn was a response to 2016 gang-rape

One of the five men convicted of the notorious “wolf pack” gang-rape in Spain seven years ago has had his sentence reduced under the botched sexual consent legislation that was introduced by the socialist-led government in the wake of public anger about the case.

The rape, which took place during the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona in July 2016, shocked the country, and nationwide protests erupted after the five defendants were initially convicted of the lesser offence of sexual abuse.

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Protests in Israel as supreme court hears challenge to judicial curbs

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Striking down of ‘reasonableness’ clause abolishing ability to overrule government could trigger constitutional crisis

Israel’s supreme court justices have begun hearing petitions against a key part of the rightwing government’s judicial overhaul limiting the court’s powers, a development that could trigger an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

For the first time, a panel of all 15 judges convened on Tuesday to discuss eight filings aimed at striking down the “reasonableness” clause, passed by the Knesset in July, which abolished the supreme court’s ability to overrule government decisions.

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‘I deplore it’: Bernard Tapie’s family oppose Netflix series about tycoon

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Relatives of French businessman, politician, singer and actor attack miniseries described as half-biopic, half-fiction

The family of the French businessman, actor, singer and former politician Bernard Tapie have attacked a Netflix miniseries based on his colourful life.

The series, described as half-biopic, half-fiction, will relate the story of “an ordinary man with an extraordinary ambition”.

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V&A to look after ancient Yemen stones found in London shop

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Museum agrees to care for stelae dating from second half of first millennium BC until it is safe to return them

The V&A is to look after four ancient carved funerary stones that were found by police in a shop in east London in a historic agreement with Yemen.

The stelae, which date from the second half of the first millennium BC, come from necropoli that have been looted in recent years.

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Climate crisis: Africa is talking but is the west listening?

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Africa’s largest meeting on the crisis finished last week amid arguments over ‘false solutions’ and unfulfilled promises. But will the lofty ideals presented translate into better lives for Africans?

More than a dozen African leaders stood outside Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi last Wednesday to review what had been billed as the continent’s largest meeting on the climate crisis.

Earlier that morning, the Nairobi Declaration had been adopted as a blueprint to guide the continent in future negotiations with the west in global forums such as the G20 meeting; the UN general assembly; the annual meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund; and Cop28.

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Brother of Briton held in India says UK government is ‘more talk and no action’

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Gurpreet Singh Johal calls for increased pressure to free brother Jagtar after Rishi Sunak raised case with Narendra Modi

The brother of a British man held in an Indian jail for six years fears the UK government is “more talk” and “no action”, after Rishi Sunak raised the case with Narendra Modi at the recent G20 summit in Delhi.

Jagtar Singh Johal, 36, claims to have been tortured and forced to make a confession since he was detained in India in 2017. He faces terrorism charges and the first stages of his trial have only just got under way after repeated delays caused by disputes over evidence. He denies the charges, and he could face a death sentence if convicted.

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Hong Kong’s multimillion dollar cliffside mansions on brink of collapse after record rains

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Police cordon off some properties in Redhill Peninsula and evacuate at least one after typhoon Haikui brought extreme weather

Luxury cliffside homes in Hong Kong are on the brink of collapse after record breaking rains which killed at least two people, injured more than 100, and caused landslides across the city.

Hong Kong police have cordoned at least three properties in Redhill Peninsula, a coastal housing estate on the southern side of Hong Kong island, and evacuated one which was in “imminent danger”. Photographs of the multimillion dollar residences show large sections of the cliff have fallen away beneath swimming pools and gardens.

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US agrees to release $6bn in Iran funds as part of deal to free detained Americans

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Sanctions waiver will allow transfer of $6bn in frozen Iranian assets from South Korea to Qatar, in effort to win release of quintet

The Biden administration has issued a waiver to allow the transfer of $6bn in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar as part of a deal to free five Americans detained in Iran.

The waiver was a necessary step towards advancing a previously announced deal, which also involves the freeing of five Iranian citizens imprisoned in the US, mostly for sanctions-busting offenses.

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Canadian man accused of killing Muslim family motivated by white nationalism, court hears

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Closely watched trial of Nathaniel Veltman, charged with murder, could reshape how Canada prosecutes far-right extremism

The man accused of murdering four members of a Muslim family was motivated by white nationalist beliefs and was out to commit an act of “terrorism”, prosecutors have argued, during opening statements of a closely watched murder trial that could reshape how Canada prosecutes far-right extremism.

Nathaniel Veltman, 22, is facing four charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder after driving his truck into five members of the Afzaal family while they were out for a walk in London, Ontario, on the evening of 6 June 2021.

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Chile president gives staunch defence of democracy, 50 years after Pinochet coup

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Gabriel Boric makes speech outside palace where Salvador Allende was overthrown in 1973, ushering in brutal military dictatorship

Chile’s president has given an outspoken defence of democracy as the country marked the 50th anniversary of General Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état, which ushered in 17 years of brutal military dictatorship.

“Problems with democracy can always be solved … and a coup d’état is never justifiable – nor is endangering the human rights of those who think differently,” said Gabriel Boric in a speech outside La Moneda, the presidential palace bombed by British-built Hawker Hunter jets during the 1973 coup.

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US scientists who used scissors to kill lab rats must be fired, activists say

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Tulane university researchers accused of ‘serious’ violations that breached international protocol over animal deaths

An animal rights group is demanding the firing of researchers at a Louisiana university who killed laboratory rats with scissors and a blunt blade – and used out-of-date anesthetics for pain relief.

The episodes are detailed in separate, self-reported notices of violation to the federal Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (Olaw), which were sent by Tulane University in New Orleans and obtained by the Stop Animal Exploitation Now advocacy group.

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Up to 2,000 feared drowned after Libyan city hit by ‘catastrophic’ storm floods

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Local leaders in eastern city of Derna say thousands missing after two ageing dams collapse overnight

As many as 2,000 people may have been drowned after a powerful storm unleashed catastrophic floods in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, according to the head of one of the country’s two rival governments.

Ossama Hamad, prime minister of the eastern-based government, said on Monday that thousands were believed missing after torrential rains over the weekend. The Red Crescent in Benghazi had put the death toll closer to just 250, but the worst-hit area of Derna remained largely cut off with local leaders claiming the situation in the city was “out of control and a catastrophe”.

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Outcry as Atlanta refuses to handle petitions over ‘Cop City’ police campus

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City condemned for controversial move after activists and protesters deliver signatures to clerk’s office at city hall

The city of Atlanta has refused to begin counting and verifying petitions signed by about 116,000 registered voters to put on the ballot the question of whether a controversial police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” should be built.

The move was backed by a legal memo from lawyers hired by the city, citing an active court case, after dozens of activists and Atlanta residents delivered the petitions to the clerk’s office at city hall on Monday.

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Former Spain captain says Luis Rubiales row felt like ‘going to war’

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Verónica Boquete alleges Jenni Hermoso’s phone was hacked after kiss by football boss at World Cup

A former captain of Spain’s women’s national football team has described the weeks-long standoff over the fate of Luis Rubiales as a “war” that has pitted more than 100 of the country’s top female players against certain members of the Spanish football establishment.

In an interview published on Monday, Verónica Boquete even went so far as to claim that Jenni Hermoso’s phone had been hacked, which may have been an attempt to discredit Hermoso in the wake of the unsolicited kiss by Rubiales.

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Morocco quake survivors call for more help after entire villages destroyed

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As scale of disaster become clearer, survivors in small mountain communities feel they have been abandoned

As the dirt roads leading to some of the areas worst hit in Friday’s earthquake in Morocco were gradually cleared, the full extent of the disaster was being revealed, including whole villages destroyed in Al Haouz province.

In the tiny hamlet of Tarouiste, in the Atlas mountain foothills above the town of Amizmiz, not one of a dozen houses was left standing. Only the village mosque had not been reduced to rubble.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Kim Jong-un’s Russia trip will be ‘full-scale visit’ with ‘formal lunch’, says Kremlin – as it happened

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Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says North Korean leader’s journey to Russia and meeting with Vladimir Putin ‘will be a full-scale visit’

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced trip. It is her fourth such visit since the war began.

Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, has reported that overnight there were no casualties in the region, despite Russian attacks.

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Statue of founder of Soviet secret police unveiled in Moscow

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Tribute to ‘Iron Felix’ Dzerzhinsky sited at HQ of Russia’s foreign spy service, following earlier monument that was toppled in 1991

A bronze statue of “Iron Felix” Dzerzhinsky, the ruthless founder of the Soviet secret police and architect of the Red Terror that followed the 1917 revolution, has been unveiled at the headquarters of Russia’s foreign spy service.

Dzerzhinsky, a Polish noble turned revolutionary who helped lay the foundations of the repressive system over which Joseph Stalin was to preside, is reviled by dissidents but is a hero to the spies who rule in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

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Morocco earthquake: death toll passes 2,600 as foreign aid teams fly in

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Authorities accept help from some countries but other offers not yet taken up as search for survivors runs out of time

The death toll in the Moroccan earthquake has passed 2,600 people as a limited number of foreign aid and rescue teams joined an intensifying race against time to find any remaining survivors high in the Atlas mountains, where many villages remain inaccessible.

Moroccan authorities said they had “responded favourably” to offers of help from visiting search and rescue teams from Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates, but they were yet to accept further offers of aid from other countries despite the urgent nature of the disaster – including from France and from Turkey, which experienced a deadly earthquake in February. Its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said it would help “with all means” if its offer was accepted.

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Greek PM under attack over handling of Storm Daniel disaster response

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis faces biggest crisis yet as residents ask where money for ‘immediate’ flood relief has gone

The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is facing his biggest crisis yet as – less than a week after rainstorms left vast tracts of the country’s heartlands under water – his government has come under attack for its handling of the disaster that left 15 dead.

Health experts have described conditions in the flood-stricken Thessaly region – one of Greece’s richest agricultural areas – as ripe for the spread of infectious diseases after a summer of unprecedented heat-induced forest fires.

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