Descendants of William Gladstone urge British government to discuss reparations in the Caribbean
The descendants of the former British prime minister William Gladstone have apologised for their family’s past as enslavers in Guyana and urged the UK to discuss reparations in the Caribbean.
Gladstone’s father was one of the largest enslavers in the parts of the Caribbean colonised by Britain.
Continue reading...Large-scale study indicates population declines after collation of data from country’s conservation organisations and birdwatchers
A report on India’s bird population has painted a grim picture for many of the country’s species.
The State of India’s Birds (SoIB) report – published on Friday – showed worrisome declines, with 178 species of wild birds identified as needing immediate priority for conservation.
Continue reading...Mexico latest country where government is considering passing new laws to criminalise environmental destruction
A growing number of countries are considering introducing laws to make ecocide a crime.
Mexico is the latest country where politicians are seeking to deter environmental damage – and to get justice for its victims – by criminalising it. Karina Marlen Barrón Perales, congresswoman for Nuevo León, has submitted a bill to the Mexican congress introducing a new crime of “ecocide”.
Continue reading...Lukashenko says Prigozhin dismissed warnings about threats to his life; Kremlin denies being behind plane crash; flight recorders and 10 bodies recovered
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has said he warned the Wagner group chiefs Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin – who apparently died in a plane crash on Wednesday – to watch out for possible threats to their lives, and insisted that Wagner fighters remain in Belarus. Lukashenko said on Friday that Prigozhin had twice dismissed his concerns about the possible threats. He said that during Prigozhin’s June mutiny he had warned he would “die” if he continued to march on Moscow, to which he said Prigozhin answered: “To hell with it – I will die.”
The Kremlin said western suggestions that Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an “absolute lie”. It declined on Friday to definitively confirm his death, citing the need to wait for test results.
A second plane linked to Prigozhin by some Russian media has no connection to Wagner group and never did, the CEO of the aircraft operator company said. Russian media, mainly associated with a Wagner Telegram channel, had linked a second business jet with the mercenary group and reported it was also in the air at the time of the crash.
Russian investigators said they had recovered flight recorders and 10 bodies from the crash scene in Russia’s Tver region. “Molecular genetic analyses are being carried out to establish their identities,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said on social media on Friday.
The UK’s defence ministry has said there is not yet definitive proof that Prigozhin was onboard the plane that crashed with no survivors but that it was “highly likely” he was dead.
Russia’s paramilitary group Wagner is a spent force, Ukraine’s defence minister has said after Prigozhin’s presumed death. “There is actually no longer a Wagner group left as they were a year ago, as a serious fighting force,” Oleksii Reznikov told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag on Friday. “They are broken.”
The US will begin flight training for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets in October, the Pentagon has announced. The training would begin after the pilots receive English-language training next month, a spokesperson said on Thursday. Several pilots and dozens of aircraft maintenance crew would take the training at an airbase in Arizona, he added.
Turkey sees “no alternative” to the original grain export agreement Ukraine struck with Russia, Ankara has said, dismissing an alternate route reportedly being considered by the US. Russia last month pulled out of the deal that enabled Ukraine to export grain from three Black Sea ports but Ukraine this month sent a cargo vessel to Istanbul to test the alternate route. However, Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, who met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Friday, said Ankara was focused on reviving the original deal.
Heineken has completed its lengthy exit from Russia with the sale of its operations there for a symbolic €1, after Moscow clamped down on asset sales in retaliation for western sanctions.
German prosecutors say they are investigating the attempted murder of Berlin-based Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko after she was one of three Russian-exile journalists who experienced symptoms consistent with poisoning last October.
The US state department has imposed sanctions on 13 people and entities it said were reportedly connected to the forced deportation and transfer of Ukraine’s children.
Danish film-maker Lars von Trier has defended himself from a backlash after writing a social media post that criticised Denmark’s donation of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. “Russian lives matter also!” he wrote on Instagram on Tuesday after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Denmark.
Continue reading...Nearly 1,000 people in Merryville, in Beauregard parish close to Texas border, ordered to evacuate as Tiger Island fire burns nearby
A rare uncontrollable wildfire in Louisiana has forced nearly 1,000 residents to evacuate the town of Merryville in Beauregard parish, near the state’s border with Texas.
“Get out now!” the Beauregard parish sheriff’s office wrote on social media.
Continue reading...A further 80 people injured trying to enter stadium, with 11 in critical condition
Twelve people have died and about 80 have been injured in a crush as sports fans tried to enter Madagascar’s national stadium for the opening ceremony of the Indian Ocean Island Games, the prime minister said.
Christian Ntsay said 11 of the injured were in a critical condition after the incident on Friday.
Continue reading...Spain forward rejects FA chief’s claims as ‘categorically false’ as the national women’s team refuses to play until he resigns
• ‘Ego above dignity’: Rubiales’ defiance over kiss shocks Spain
The Spain forward Jenni Hermoso has said she did not consent to be kissed by the Spanish football federation president, Luis Rubiales, as the women’s team announced that they would not play until he is removed.
Rubiales has faced fierce criticism for days, as well as a Fifa investigation, after he grabbed Hermoso by the head and kissed her on her lips during the Women’s World Cup final trophy presentation.
Continue reading...Women’s and men’s players and clubs join politicians in condemning football chief’s refusal to resign
For a brief moment, it looked like it would be a victory for feminism. After days of uproar across Spain and around the world, media reports had suggested that Spain’s football chief, Luis Rubiales, would step down over the kiss he planted on forward Jenni Hermoso’s lips during the Women’s World Cup medal presentation on Sunday.
Yet instead of announcing his departure at an emergency meeting of the football federation on Friday, he left many Spaniards in shock by defiantly declaring “I will not resign” five times in a meandering speech that hit out at “false feminism” while also seeking to portray himself as a victim and recast the kiss as “a peck”.
Continue reading...Dutch multinational brewer takes €300m loss from transfer of assets to Russia’s Arnest Group
Heineken has completed its lengthy exit from Russia with the sale of its operations there for a symbolic €1, after Moscow clamped down on asset sales in retaliation for western sanctions.
The Dutch brewer, which also owns the Amstel, Birra Moretti and Tiger brands, said it would be taking a €300m loss as a result of the sale, which will see it transfer all of its remaining assets, including seven breweries, to Russia’s Arnest Group.
Continue reading...Hadid had denounced Itamar Ben-Gvir for saying Jewish settlers had more rights than Palestinians in occupied territories
The far-right Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called the Palestinian American supermodel Bella Hadid an “Israel hater” after she joined denunciations of his claim that Jewish settlers have more rights than Arabs in the occupied territories.
Ben-Gvir told Israeli television this week that freedom of movement for settlers in the West Bank outweighs the rights of Palestinians. The remarks followed two deadly attacks on Israelis in the West Bank, the latest in a series of killings by both settlers and Palestinians in the territory, known as Judea and Samaria to Israelis.
Continue reading...This blog has now closed
Mugshots define eras.
Bugsy Siegel peering malevolently from beneath his fedora in a 1928 booking photo summed up the perverse romance of gangsters in the prohibition age.
Continue reading...Flight recorders also recovered, Russian officials say; Alexander Lukashenko says he warned Wagner bosses to be aware of threats to their lives. This live blog is closed
Rishi Sunak has reaffirmed the UK defence ministry’s comments from Friday morning, saying intelligence suggested Prigozhin was “most likely” on the plane.
“We’re obviously monitoring the situation very closely, working with our allies to establish what happened,” the British prime minister told reporters.
Continue reading...Jay Powell tells symposium in Wyoming that inflation is still too high but that US central bank will ‘keep at it until the job is done’
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell used a closely watched speech on Friday to warn that the fight against inflation in the US is not over.
Speaking at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Powell said inflation was still too high and that interest rates may have to rise further to tamp it down.
Continue reading...Irfaan Ali also demands posthumous charges for crimes against humanity for traders and enslavers
The president of Guyana has called on descendants of European slave traders to offer to pay reparations to right historical wrongs.
Irfaan Ali also demanded that those involved in the transatlantic slave trade and African enslavement be posthumously charged for crimes against humanity.
Continue reading...Fund aims to help struggling winemakers as they adjust to consumers’ changing habits
The French government has announced it is to set aside €200m to fund the destruction of surplus wine production in an attempt to support struggling producers and shore up prices.
Several major wine-producing regions in France, particularly the Bordeaux area, are struggling because of a cocktail of problems including changes in consumption habits, the cost of living crisis and the after-effects of Covid-19.
Continue reading...GOP-led House committee convenes on Guam as officials say Beijing working to ‘fill perceived voids in America’s assistance’
Countering China and bolstering national security dominated the conversation in a Hilton hotel on Guam, 15 hours before and oceans away from the Milwaukee arena hosting the first Republican primary debate.
Nine members of the GOP-led House committee on natural resources convened on Guam for a rare field hearing – during the summer recess – on countering China’s influence in the region.
Continue reading...Gérald Darmanin sounds alarm over far-right leader as he positions himself as centre-right candidate
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen could win the next presidential election in 2027, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has said, as he positions himself as a potential candidate for the centre-right.
“The fact of the matter is that in five years’ time, a victory for Madame Le Pen is quite probable,” Darmanin told La Voix du Nord, in an interview published on Friday.
Continue reading...Death toll stands at 115 from devastating fires as authorities say release of names ‘will help with the investigation’
The names of 388 people unaccounted for in the wake of the devastating wildfire in Hawaii have been released by officials on the island of Maui.
The list of known people thought to be missing following the fire has been compiled by the FBI, which said on Tuesday there were about 1,000 to 1,100 people on a more tentative list of those unaccounted for.
Continue reading...Spokesperson says western claims that Vladimir Putin was behind assassination are ‘an absolute lie’
The Kremlin has denied that it assassinated the Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, calling western intelligence assessments of Vladimir Putin’s potential involvement “an absolute lie”.
Prigozhin is believed to have been killed when his Embraer jet crashed north-west of Moscow on Wednesday, according to Russian officials. Western intelligence officials have briefed media that Prigozhin was most likely to have been killed by an explosion onboard the plane on President Putin’s orders.
Continue reading...Former vice-presidential nominee condemns prosecutors over ‘travesty’ and says ‘we’re not going to keep putting up with this’
A second US civil war is “going to happen” if state and federal authorities continue to prosecute Donald Trump, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin said.
“Those who are conducting this travesty and creating this two-tier system of justice, I want to ask them what the heck, do you want us to be in civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen,” Palin told Newsmax on Thursday night.
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