Category Archives: World News

Country Garden shares jump after Chinese developer strikes debt deal

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European stocks hit three-week high as China’s government tries to prop up ailing economy

The share price of the ailing Chinese developer Country Garden has jumped by as much as a fifth after its creditors agreed a delay on debt repayments, offering some respite from the country’s crisis-hit property market.

The company agreed over the weekend to extend the payment dates on a 3.9bn yuan (£430m) private bond, to the relief of investors who had thought it would default on payments due on Saturday. Country Garden will instead have three years to repay the debt, after it won a narrow vote with the backing of 56% of its creditors, Reuters reported.

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French actor Mathieu Kassovitz ‘seriously injured’ in motorbike accident

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Actor famous for Amélie, The Bureau and La Haine, which he also wrote and directed, reportedly in a ‘worrying’ condition

The French actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz is in a “worrying” condition after a motorbike accident in greater Paris on Sunday, authorities say.

The 56-year-old, who is best known for his 1995 film La Haine and his role in the 2001 film Amélie, was on a motorcycle training course at the time, a police source told Agence France-Presse.

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‘A big shock’: the Israeli startup helping ultra-Orthodox Jews enter world of hi-tech work

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Entrepreneurs want Haredi men, many of whom live in poverty, to have access to the opportunities of Tel Aviv

Entering Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood just a few kilometres away from the gleaming towers that testify to Tel Aviv’s prowess as a global hi-tech hub, feels like stepping into a different world.

Despite the startups and advanced technology initiatives on their doorstep, much of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, population still shuns modern inventions such as television and smartphones, which are viewed as a threat to their way of life.

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‘A psychological weapon’: inside a Ukrainian factory making decoy kit

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Plastic, wood, foam and metal are skilfully shaped into copies of weapons to fool Russian attackers

In a dusty workshop, a unique group of Ukrainian weapons experts race to produce artillery guns that will never be fired, radar trucks that cannot detect anything, and missiles without explosives.

The pieces are decoys that aim to draw Russian fire, wasting enemy ammunition, missiles and drones while protecting real equipment and the soldiers manning it.

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Algeria says its coastguard fired warning shots before killing jetski riders

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Defence ministry releases its version of events five days after two dual French-Moroccan men were shot dead on entering Algerian waters

Algeria’s defence ministry has said its coastguard fired warning shots before firing directly at a man on a jetski who entered Algerian waters, in an incident that a survivor said left two dead.

The incident took place on Tuesday after five men strayed into Algerian waters on jetskis near the Moroccan coastal resort of Saïdia on Algeria’s border, according to Mohamed Kissi, who said he survived the shooting.

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Top Democrat says ‘powerful argument’ 14th amendment disqualifies Trump

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Tim Kaine says clause on ‘insurrection against the constitution’ could preclude ex-president from running in next year’s election

Democratic senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said that he believes there is a “powerful argument” to be made that Donald Trump can be disqualified from running in the 2024 presidential elections under the 14th amendment.

“In my view, the attack on the Capitol that day was designed for a particular purpose at a particular moment and that was to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power of as is laid out in the constitution,” he said in an interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “So I think there is a powerful argument to be made.”

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Owners of 100,000 properties held by foreign shell companies unknown despite new UK laws

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Loopholes are used to obscure ownership of two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies

More than two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies do not report the identity of their owners, according to analysis that found significant flaws in laws meant to prevent oligarchs from hiding their wealth.

The UK government hurriedly introduced a register of overseas entities in August 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February that year, in an attempt to “flush out corrupt elites laundering money through UK property”. However, critics said there were severe flaws in the rules from the start.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy discusses grain corridor and security in Odesa with Macron – as it happened

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Phone call between leaders of Ukraine and France comes on eve of summit between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over Black Sea grain deal

The prosecutor general’s office reported that Russian forces shelled the city of Seredyna-Buda in Sumy, northern Ukraine, on Saturday, killing one person and injuring three others, the Kyiv Independent reports.

These claims have not yet been independently verified.

Russian terrorists continue to attack port infrastructure in the hope of provoking a food crisis and famine in the world.

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Officials investigate death at Burning Man as thousands stranded by floods

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Sheriff’s office offers few details but says death occurred during festival in Nevada desert, where storms turned ground to mud

Over 70,000 attendees of the annual Burning Man festival in the Black Rock desert of Nevada are stranded as the festival comes to a close on Monday due to heavy rains that have cut off access to the site.

Attendees have been ordered to shelter in place and to conserve food, water, and fuel, although no shortages have been reported. A death that occurred at the festival is currently under investigation, but no details have been released, including the identity of the deceased or the suspected cause of death.

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Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history

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Upper Sioux Agency state park in Minnesota, where bodies of those killed after US-Dakota war are buried, to be transferred

Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back.

The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in US history.

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Queensland company accused of bribery in Nauru says charge should be dropped as fair trial ‘impossible’

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Exclusive: Lawyers for Getax Australia say ‘unjustified and inexplicable delays’ from the prosecution mean evidence has been lost and essential witnesses have died

A Queensland exporter accused of systematically bribing Nauruan politicians for favourable mining deals on the Pacific island has applied to have a charge of foreign bribery permanently stayed, arguing “a fair trial is impossible” and accusing Australian authorities of mishandling the investigation and losing key evidence.

Court documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that lawyers for Getax Australia Pty Ltd have applied for a permanent stay. If successful, it would effectively permanently halt the company’s prosecution.

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Bavaria leader declines to dismiss deputy over antisemitic leaflet

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Markus Söder stands by Hubert Aiwanger after he apologies for flyer found in his school satchel in the 1980s

The leader of Germany’s powerful state of Bavaria has said he will not dismiss his deputy despite a row over an antisemitic leaflet which he admitted having carried in his school satchel as a teenager.

Markus Söder said it would not be proportionate to sack Hubert Aiwanger, a move that would have upended the ruling coalition in the southern state six weeks before a regional election.

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A UK trade deal with India was promised by last October. Why is it still not ready?

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Successive prime ministers have failed to achieve what they see as one of the great dividends offered by Brexit

Liz Truss bowled into Downing Street last summer with a promise to rip up much of what her predecessor Boris Johnson had done. However, one goal remained: she insisted, as Johnson had done, she could deliver a free trade deal with India by Diwali in October.

Whitehall officials were dismayed, therefore, when they received the latest set of demands from Indian negotiators. It was not that New Delhi was asking too much, rather they were not saying what they were asking at all.

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UK solar could be ‘dumping ground’ for products of Chinese forced labour, ministers warned

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Energy bill amendment requires large solar energy projects to prove supply chain free of slave labour

The UK risks becoming a dumping ground for the products of forced labour from Xinjiang province in China if it rejects reforms proposed by members of the foreign affairs select committee with cross-party support, ministers have been warned.

An amendment to the energy bill, due to be debated on Tuesday, would require solar energy companies to prove that their supply chains are free of slave labour. The Xinjiang region is the source of 35%-40% of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon, the key raw material in the solar photovoltaic supply chain.

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Florida judge strikes down DeSantis-backed voting map as unconstitutional

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Circuit court judge rules proposal ‘results in the diminishment of Black voters’ ability to elect their candidate of choice’

A judge in Florida has ruled in favor of voting rights groups that filed a lawsuit against a congressional redistricting map approved by Ron DeSantis in 2022. Voting rights groups had criticized the map for diluting political power in Black communities.

In the ruling, Leon county circuit judge J Lee Marsh sent the map back to the Florida legislature to be redrawn in a way that complies with the state’s constitution.

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France planning to ban disposable vapes in effort to combat smoking

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Ban follows similar measures in Germany, Australia and New Zealand amid concern over health effects

Disposable vapes will be banned in France as part of a national plan to combat smoking, the prime minister said on Sunday.

Élisabeth Borne told the broadcaster RTL that the government would “soon present a new national plan to fight against smoking with, in particular, the prohibition of disposable electronic cigarettes, the famous ‘puffs’ which give bad habits to young people”.

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Sudan: at least 25 civilians killed in weekend attacks on Khartoum

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Airstrikes and artillery and rocket fire reported as clashes between armed forces and paramilitaries shows no sign of abating

Twenty-five civilians were killed in attacks in Khartoum over the weekend, as the violence showed no signs of abating after nearly five months of war.

Five civilians died on Sunday when bombs that “fell on their homes” in the Sudanese capital, a medical source said, a day after an airstrike in the south of the city killed at least 20.

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Netanyahu says Eritreans involved in Tel Aviv clashes should be deported

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Israeli PM also orders plan to remove all African asylum seekers after protests by rival groups of Eritreans

The Israeli prime minister has said he wants Eritreans involved in a violent clash in Tel Aviv to be deported immediately and has ordered a plan to remove all of the country’s African asylum seekers.

The remarks on Sunday followed bloody protests by rival groups of Eritreans in south Tel Aviv the day before that left dozens of people injured. Eritreans, supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s government, faced off with construction lumber, pieces of metal and rocks, smashing shop windows and police cars. Israeli police in riot gear fired teargas, stun grenades and live rounds while officers on horseback tried to control the protesters.

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Iran jails two female journalists over ‘conspiracy and collusion’

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Negin Bagheri and Elnaz Mohammadi receive three-year sentences but will spend about a month in prison

Two female Iranian journalists will spend about a month in prison as part of a three-year partly suspended sentence for “conspiracy” and “collusion”, local media reported on Sunday.

Negin Bagheri and Elnaz Mohammadi will serve one-fortieth of the term, or less than a month, in prison, their lawyer, Amir Raisian, told the reformist Ham Mihan daily newspaper, where Mohammadi works.

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Sent home: how Kenyan’s dream of life as a UK care worker turned sour

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Anthony Mbare found his tied visa put him at mercy of his bosses. He is one of thousands who have come to plug shortages in adult social care

It is a bitter November night and Anthony Mbare is shivering in a car in rural Wiltshire, south-west England, waiting to see his next client.

It’s 3C and he has been here for almost two hours but he cannot turn on the heater because the car battery might die. A petrol-station coffee to warm him up is £3 he cannot afford. He blows on his hands, wriggles his toes and huddles under a blanket.

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