Category Archives: World News

Solar-powered off-road car finishes 620-mile test drive across north Africa

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The Stella Terra was designed by students at Eindhoven University of Technology and completed trip without recharging

A solar-powered car said to be the first in the world capable of driving off-road over long distances without recharging has completed a 620-mile (1,000km) test drive across Morocco and the Sahara.

The two-seat Stella Terra, designed by students at the Eindhoven University of Technology, completed the journey across a variety of challenging landscapes as part of a final test of its lightweight frame and aerodynamic profile.

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‘Can we save the wild salmon of Iceland?’: Björk releases ‘lost’ song to fight fish farming

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The Icelandic singer discusses her collaboration with Rosalía and how artists pick up on the environmental emergency

Iceland’s fish farming industry is “a couple of wild guys who want to make money quick and sacrifice nature”, the Icelandic singer Björk has said before the release of a “lost” song to help fight the increasingly controversial practice.

In an interview with Guardian Seascape, she added that artists were often the “canaries in the coalmine” of environmental emergencies because it was their job to be sensitive.

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Weighty issue: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make aircraft too heavy to fly

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Concerns over fuel capacity with wrestlers onboard led to national carrier taking the ‘unusual step’ of transferring sumo rikishi to another flight

Japan’s flagship carrier has been forced to lay on an extra flight at short notice after concluding that two of its planes were at risk of exceeding their weight limits. The culprit was not excess baggage, however, but a passenger list that included some of the country’s heaviest men.

Japan Airlines took the “very unusual” step of transferring a number of sumo wrestlers to a hastily arranged special flight last week over concerns that the two aircraft they had originally been due to fly would be unable to carry sufficient fuel due to weight restrictions.

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Banana fortune heir Daniel Noboa wins Ecuador presidential election

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Luisa González, handpicked by Rafael Correa as successor, loses to 35-year-old who promises tough line on violent crime and cocaine trafficking

Daniel Noboa, the heir to a banana fortune who pledges a hard line on rocketing violent crime, employment for the young and foreign investment, will become Ecuador’s youngest ever president at 35 after winning by a margin of around five points over his rival, the leftist lawyer Luisa González.

With 90% of votes counted on Sunday night in Ecuador, Noboa had 52.29% of the vote against 47.71% for González, according to Ecuador’s electoral council.

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New Zealand Labour shed votes to the right but also the left – the price of a progressive policy bonfire

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The party’s supporters feel like it got a kicking from everyone. After a dire result, analysts pointed to its inability to meet its lofty aspirations

It was an assessment with a distinctly New Zealand flavour. “At the end of the day, there’s one unavoidable reality,” said Chris Hipkins, the defeated Labour prime minister, speaking to reporters after he conceded the country’s election on Saturday. “We lost because not enough people voted for us.”

But that was only part of it. Hipkins’ ruling, centre-left Labour party had crashed from the historic highs of its 2020 election result, in which it won 50% of the vote, to a dismal 27% on Saturday, nearly halving its seats in parliament. However, the punishing loss was not only a clear defeat by the right-leaning parties that will form the next government – the size and shape of which will be determined when a final vote tally is announced on 3 November; the blows also came from Labour’s left.

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White House seeks weapons package for Israel amid ‘real risk of escalation’

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National security adviser says deployment of USS Eisenhower is to send message that ‘no group should seek to exploit the situation’

Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan toured the US Sunday morning shows to sell White House policy on the conflict between Israel and Hamas as Israeli forces massed on the border ahead of an expected ground incursion into Gaza amid a deepening humanitarian crisis there and fears over the conflict spreading.

Responding to an Axios report that Iran warned Israel through the United Nations that it will intervene if the Israeli operation in Gaza continues, Sullivan told ABC’s “This Week” that he could not confirm it.

But, he said, the US is “concerned” about the conflict spreading. “We see a real risk of escalation on the northern border and that is why President Biden has been so clear and so forceful in saying that no state and no group should seek to exploit the situation to their advantage or should escalate the conflict.”

The deployment of the USS Eisenhower from the US to the region is “to give additional capacity to respond to any contingency and also to send a clear message of deterrence that no one should get involved in this, no one should escalate this”, he added.

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Hamas holding up to 10 Britons hostage in Gaza, says foreign secretary

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James Cleverly says updated figure of those captured in attack on Israel is ‘not an unreasonable estimate’

Up to 10 Britons are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, the foreign secretary has said, higher than previous informal estimates.

Israel estimates that 126 people from different countries are being held hostage, with reports previously suggesting six of those taken were British. Up to 17 British people, including children, are thought to be dead or missing since the conflict began last weekend.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia striking Avdiivka ‘with everything they have’, says city official

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy praises troops for holding their positions in areas including Avdiivka, where fighting is ‘particularly hot’

In this clip, the Ukrainian commander, Dmytro Lysyuk, says Russia’s large scale tactics do not work.

At least six people have been killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials reported Sunday.

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Poles vote as PiS hopes to win third term and fend off Tusk-led opposition

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Ability of populists or Civic Coalition to form a government is likely to depend on other, smaller parties

Poles are voting in the country’s parliamentary election, with the populist Law and Justice (PiS) government trying to win a third term in office and see off a challenge from an opposition led by the former prime minister and European Council president Donald Tusk.

Polling in the run-up to the vote suggested the race was too close to call, and the ability for either PiS or Tusk’s Civic Coalition to form a government is likely to come down to the results of other, smaller parties.

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Israel confirms 155 people being held hostage by Hamas

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Among the hostages are an 83-year-old Israeli journalist who was taken from his home in kibbutz Nir Oz

The Israeli military has confirmed 155 people who are being held as hostages by Hamas following its deadly attack on 7 October.

Among the hostages are an 83-year-old Israeli journalist who was taken from his home in kibbutz Nir Oz with his 85-year-old partner, who had worked for decades for peace and the recognition of Palestinian rights.

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SAS had ‘gone too far’ in Afghanistan, inquiry into claims of unlawful killings told

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Memo by military police chief said there was ‘no shortage of detractors’ in Whitehall of elite unit’s conduct

Senior figures in Downing Street were calling in 2016 for the SAS to have its “wings clipped” as it emerged that a growing number of suspected murders of Afghan civilians were being investigated by military police.

Critics of the elite unit’s behaviour were led by Jeremy Heywood, who at the time was cabinet secretary to the then prime minister, Theresa May, according to a memo cited last week during a public inquiry into allegations of unlawful SAS killings in Afghanistan.

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Jim Jordan races to try to change minds of holdouts in bid for House speaker

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Rightwing speakership contender says he thinks he has 217 votes needed to win despite group who say they will not support him

The rightwing congressman Jim Jordan is seeking to shore up support for his bid to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, with plans to appear on the House floor early this week to try to sway Republican members of Congress who signaled in a secret ballot vote they will not support his bid.

Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, claimed in a brief interview with Politico he believes he will get the 217 votes required to secure the speakership in a vote he wants to happen on Tuesday.

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Ambiguous Japanese eco-drama wins London film festival top prize

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Evil Does Not Exist, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, is about community’s fight against ‘glamping’ development

A Japanese eco-drama about a lakeside community’s resistance to a corporate “glamping” development in their beautiful unspoilt village has won the top prize at the London film festival.

Evil Does Not Exist, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, tells the story of a community fighting to preserve its principles and the integrity of the natural world. They are up against a Tokyo company that has bought up swathes of nearby land, intending to turn it into a destination for well-off city tourists.

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Egypt moves troops to Gaza border amid fears of expulsion of Palestinians

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Cairo says any move by Israel to push refugees over frontier would breach international law and be a security risk for the country

Egypt is stepping up its military presence at its Rafah border crossing with Gaza, with fears that Israel intends to push hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees over the frontier into the Sinai desert.

Cairo has said the expulsion of so many Palestinians from their homes would be in breach of international law, and a national security risk for Egypt that is liable to bankrupt the country’s ailing economy. Palestinians themselves, and other Arab states, fear refugees would never be allowed back to their homes.

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Russia’s Avdiivka offensive is failing, says top Ukrainian officer

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Major assault in Donetsk launched on Tuesday said to have resulted in serious losses for Moscow’s forces

A top Ukrainian commander has claimed that Russia’s biggest offensive in months – involving tanks, thousands of soldiers and armoured vehicles in an attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka – is failing, as he admitted Kyiv’s own attempts to advance in the south were proving “difficult”.

Russian forces have pummelled the town over the past week, a key bulge surrounded by Russian-held territory on the eastern Donbas front. It is one of the largest assaults by Moscow since last year’s full-scale invasion and comes at a time when Ukraine’s counteroffensive is moving slowly, and the world is focused on the imminent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

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How Velázquez’s slave became a renowned artist in his own right

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Juan de Pareja’s story sheds light on the role of slavery in creating the great works of Spain’s golden age

The portrait, showing a man of African descent gazing frankly towards the artist, set the art world abuzz when it was revealed by Diego Velázquez in 1650.

The painting cemented the artist’s stratospheric rise, but the spotlight has been recently cast on the extraordinary trajectory of the man who is the subject of the portrait, Juan de Pareja, who went from being enslaved in Velázquez’s studio for more than two decades to becoming a successful artist in his own right.

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Trump-backed Republican Jeff Landry wins Louisiana governor’s race

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Rightwing attorney general holds off crowded field and will replace Democrat John Bel Edwards, who has served two terms

Attorney General Jeff Landry, a rightwing Republican backed by Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor’s race, holding off a crowded field of candidates.

The win is a major victory for the Republican party as they reclaim the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current governor John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek re-election due to consecutive term limits.

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Earthquake strikes Afghanistan region still reeling from week of devastation

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Another 6.3-magnitude quake strikes outside Herat in western area where thousands were killed last week

A powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake has struck western Afghanistan, just over a week after strong quakes and aftershocks killed thousands of people and flattened entire villages in the same region.

The US Geological Survey said the latest quake’s epicentre was about 21 miles (34km) outside Herat, the provincial capital, and the focus was 5 miles below the surface.

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Dominica’s mountain chicken frog disappears in ‘fastest extinction ever recorded’

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Ecological calamity on the Caribbean island demonstrates how quickly wildlife can be destroyed, scientists say

They were once so numerous they were cooked as the national dish of Dominica. Every year, thousands of mountain chicken frogs, roasted with garlic and pepper, were eaten by islanders and tourists.

Two decades later, the animal – one of the world’s largest species of frog – has in effect disappeared from the Caribbean island. A series of ecological disasters has reduced its former healthy, stable population of hundreds of thousands of animals to a total of 21 frogs, according to scientists’ most recent survey.

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Aid flights land in Egypt amid efforts to open safe corridors into Gaza

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No agreement by Saturday night on how to bring aid to trapped Palestinians before Israel’s expected ground assault

Aid flights have been arriving in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula with relief supplies for Gaza, amid diplomatic efforts to open humanitarian corridors into the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said during a tour of the region that the US was seeking agreement on establishing aid routes and safe zones. But by Saturday night, there was still no agreement on how to bring aid to the 2 million Palestinians under bombardment, as Israel laid the ground for an invasion of Gaza a week after a Hamas attack in which 1,300 Israelis and foreign nationals, mostly civilians, were murdered.

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